How are structural isomers drawn?

1 Answer
Al E.
Feb 22, 2018

Through many hours of hard practice!

Explanation:

Structural isomers have the same molecular formula, but different constitutions (e.g. connectivity of atoms).

Consider,

#C_4H_8O# with one degree of unsaturation.

It can have a double bond or a cyclic connection among the carbons (or oxygen, for that matter). I'll draw a few, but there are many constitutional isomers, on average,

puu.sh

That took me five minutes, and I'm sure there are more I missed (like a carbonyl #C=O# bond among a few of those alkanes).

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