Orgo: Strutural isomers of C2H4O ?

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beanie92

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How many possible structural isomers of C2H4O are there?

I tried drawing some and came up with 3 in total

CH2=CH_OH alcohol

CH3_CHO aldehyde

and CH2_CH2
...........\ /
............O (btw is this an ether?)

This is a question i found in one of the practice test, but the answer key is 2 and there was no further explanation :(

So does C2H4O actually have 2 or 3 isomers ?

Thank you

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Last edited:
How many possible structural isomers of C2H4O are there?

I tried drawing some and came up with 3 in total

CH2=CH_OH alcohol

CH3_CHO aldehyde

and CH2_CH2
...........\ /
............O (btw is this an ether?)

This is a question i found in one of the practice test, but the answer key is 2 and there was no further explanation :(

So does C2H4O actually have 2 or 3 isomers ?

Thank you

There should be 3 isomers, as you said. 1 is the alcohol form, 1 is the aldehyde form, and the last is the oxirane form. Tautomerization will occur between the alcohol and aldehyde forms.
 
There should be 3 isomers, as you said. 1 is the alcohol form, 1 is the aldehyde form, and the last is the oxirane form. Tautomerization will occur between the alcohol and aldehyde forms.


So the last one is an oxirane?? not an ether?
And can you explain briefly to me the tautomerization? Idk what it is... i never took orgo before, i ve been studying but there are still so many things i just dont get it !
 
So the last one is an oxirane?? not an ether?
And can you explain briefly to me the tautomerization? Idk what it is... i never took orgo before, i ve been studying but there are still so many things i just dont get it !

Hold up ... If you've never taken organic chemistry, it's going to be major challenge to explain tautomers. The first question is do you understand a reaction mechanism. If you don't understand that, it'll make understanding a tautomer rather difficult.

Note: An oxirane is a cyclic ether. It's a concept which you learn in 2nd semester Organic Chemistry when you cover epoxide (another term for an oxirane/cyclic ether) reactions (base-catalyzed vs. acid-catalyzed).
 
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Hold up ... If you've never taken organic chemistry, it's going to be major challenge to explain tautomers. The first question is do you understand a reaction mechanism. If you don't understand that, it'll make understanding a tautomer rather difficult.

Note: An oxirane is a cyclic ether. It's a concept which you learn in 2nd semester Organic Chemistry when you cover epoxide (another term for an oxirane/cyclic ether) reactions (base-catalyzed vs. acid-catalyzed).

I didn't go over chapter by chapter so im not sure how much im missing, but I do understand clearly Sn1 Sn2 and E1 E2 reaction mechanisms if thats what you're referring to... :-/ So if you can try explaining it to me, i'd really appreciate it.

I'm taking it July 20th and all of this time I've spent so much time on Biology, sighs ! For Chem, i've only focused on some functional groups, hybridization and the 4 reactions I mentioned above...

I went over all practice test in Dr. Collins packet and I always missed around 10-15 questions. Is that bad?
 
I didn't go over chapter by chapter so im not sure how much im missing, but I do understand clearly Sn1 Sn2 and E1 E2 reaction mechanisms if thats what you're referring to... :-/ So if you can try explaining it to me, i'd really appreciate it.

I'm taking it July 20th and all of this time I've spent so much time on Biology, sighs ! For Chem, i've only focused on some functional groups, hybridization and the 4 reactions I mentioned above...

I went over all practice test in Dr. Collins packet and I always missed around 10-15 questions. Is that bad?

I'd spend time working on nomenclature as well ...

Honestly, look it up on the internet.
 
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