Cis 1,4 di-tert-butyl cyclohexane                                   nader makarious    

 

 

How did I do it?

 

I started with ChemDraw where I draw cis-1,4-di-tert-butylcyclohexane using the dash wedge tools, and then I copied the molecule and pasted into Chem3D.

On Chem3D to rotate the molecule around different axes and directions trying to see the chair conformation which was really hard at the beginning.

Changing colors, atoms size, different angles and getting rid of hydrogen atoms helped me for better understanding.

After I saw the chair conformation I tried to push hydrogen’s atoms apart as far I could, to reduce any kind of steric interaction.

After it looked good enough I choose the mm tool to minimize the energy and as a result I got a twisted boat formation which showed me the minimum energy of 27.4662 .

cis1,4

 

I believe the conformation shows the minimum energy because it’s apparent that all hydrogen atoms are in the farthest position away from each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s also clear in this picture all bonds are staggered (gauche) and eclipsed conformation doesn't exist.