Re: new entries

DCHAINES@WSUHUB.UC.TWSU.EDU
Mon, 13 Feb 1995 07:28:09 -0600 (CST)

In regards to Alfonso Garcia-Pineres comments on whether chiral stereoisomers
are considered two molecules or conformations of one, I believe conformations
of one molecule is the better concept. A professor here at Wichita studies
inversion reactions of ammonia computationally. An inversion reaction applied
to a chiral molecule would interconvert the two stereoisomers, although the
inversion barrier may be very high in most cases. For this reason, I consider
stereoisomers to be two conformations of one molecule that are interconvertible
but generally have very high barriers to this inversion reaction.

I hope this confuses the issue a bit more! :-)

-Donovan C. Haines
DCHaines@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu
Tyrosine Group