General Biological Chemistry - Johnathan Cox Flashcards
What is a Lewis structure?
All atoms are shown, as well as all covalent bonds
What are reduced structures?
All carbons omitted, hydrogens attached to Carbon omitted, hydrogens attached to heteroatoms left in
What is a heteroatom?
A non carbon/hydrogen atom
What do curly arrows indicate?
Movement of the least stable pair of electrons
What is resonance shown by?
A double headed arrow, not in equilibrium
How can a species’ stability be indicated by resonance?
The more resonance structures that a species has, the more stable it is
What can resonance be described as?
The delocalisation or ‘spreading’ of charge
What is a resonance hybrid?
Shows possible resonance structures with a dashed line
What is tautomerism?
The movement of one or ore double bonds and a small atom, usually hydrogen but could also be fluorine
What is an example of tautomerism?
The changing of adenine from amino form to imino form
What is conjugation?
Alternation of single and double bonds, to form a ‘partial’ double bond
What can conjugation be described as?
Net stabilisation of the system
What is the relationship between the change in energy and wavelength in conjugation?
As the change in energy gets smaller, the wavelength gets larger
When does the wavelength of light emitted by conjugated compounds reach the visible spectrum?
When there are 8 or more conjugated double bonds
What is the change in energy in conjugation created by?
Movement of electrons from the ground state bonding orbital to the antibonding orbital
As conjugation increases, what happens to energy change and wavelength?
Energy change decreases, wavelength increases
What is the name of the molecule which gives lobsters their colour?
Astaxanthin
How many conjugated double bonds does astaxanthin have?
13
What does astaxanthin form a complex with?
Crustacyanin
Why do lobsters change from slate blue to red?
Astaxanthin and crustacyanin form a twisted complex, and when denatured, the crustacyanin leaves the complex