Are H or OH omitted in Bond Line View?

1 Answer
May 1, 2015

All H atoms attached to C are omitted in a bond-line view, but OH groups are not.

Bond-line notation is a shorthand way of writing organic structural formulas:

  • The carbon atoms and the hydrogen atoms attached to them are not shown.
  • The bonds between the carbon atoms are shown as lines.
  • The vertices and end of lines represent the carbon atoms.
  • Any unfilled valences on carbon are assumed to be filled by hydrogen atoms.
  • All atoms other than carbon, plus any hydrogen atoms attached to them, are shown.
  • Exception: The H in an aldehyde group is usually shown.

For example, the bond line notation for glucose is

![Bond line notation from http://www.chemeddl.org.](http://www.chemeddl.org/resources/models360/files/107526/d-glucose-line.png)

In the above diagram, the vertices represent the carbon atoms.

The ends of the lines are not C atoms, because the H and OH groups are shown explicitly.

The H atoms on O must be shown, because they are not on C atoms.

C atoms 2, 3, 4, and 5 have only three bonds, so they each have an H atom as the fourth bond.

C-6 has only two bonds, so it also has two unseen H atoms.