The discussion centers on the inductive effect in organic chemistry, specifically regarding the decreasing positive charge on carbon atoms in a chain, such as in n-pentyl chloride. The highly electronegative chlorine atom induces a partial positive charge on the adjacent carbon (A), which diminishes on subsequent carbons (B, C, etc.) due to the weaker nature of the charge transfer. The partial positive charge on carbon A is influenced by chlorine's electronegativity, while the charges on B and C are significantly weaker and often negligible beyond three to four carbon atoms due to the diminishing inductive effect.
PREREQUISITESChemistry students, organic chemists, and anyone interested in understanding charge distribution and inductive effects in molecular structures.
Consider n-pentyl chloride on 1 carbon atom which is attached to chlorine atom there is a partial positive charge and on second carbon atom it is said that there is less positive charge and as we move further we get more less positive charge. So why?Dr. Courtney said:Not sure what the question is.
I understood you but I was going for the fact that the partial positive charge on Carbon A is having the same capacity to attract shared pairs of electrons as chlorine atom because the partial positive charge is generated due to chlorine.CrazyNinja said:Lets name the carbons to make it easier. The carbon attached to chlorine is A, the next one B... and so on.
Now the positive charge on A is generated by highly EN chlorine. It is not a complete positive charge mind you, because the electron pairs A shares with B compensate for this charge. Now the partial shifting of the electron pair A-B (electron pairs shared by A and B) towards generates a partial negative charge on B. This charge will be smaller than that on A because it is not generated due to a highly EN atom, but by another partial positive charge (which itself is weak). From B to C, the charge decreases further and we generally neglect inductive effect after 3-4 carbons.