Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Which is the thermodynamically more stable product?

LiD - 17-8-2013 at 16:10

I had done a reaction recently:



Here, I used Wacker conditions, so PdCl2, CuCl2 as an oxidant and ethyene glycol as an alcohol. The reaction went perfectly, the only problem was that I got mixed products, both product 1 and 2.

I would like to ask that if I would heat up the reaction and slow down the addition of the reagents, than would it be possible to get only product 1 or only product 2?

kch - 17-8-2013 at 18:39

I believe the first product is formed because it is symmetric. Not sure.

[Edited on 8-18-2013 by kch]

Dany - 17-8-2013 at 22:06

Hello LiD,

if you know the structure of your products this mean you have done the NMR spectrum. You can also use your crude NMR spectrum to guess the ratio of each product. if the first molecule is present in bigger quantity, you can say that the first molecule is more stable from the second one. Generally speaking, it is difficult to guess stability from the structure. DFT (Density Dunctional Theory) or other reliable theoretical model, should be used to calculate the energy of each molecule, based on this you can be more confident when you judge.

Dany.

[Edited on 18-8-2013 by Dany]