Welcome to the CAChe Molecular Modeling Tutorials

Department of Chemistry

University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

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Modifying a Structure II

Task: Modify Cyclohexane to make cyclohexanol

Time: 4 minutes

We'll build cyclohexanol by modifying the cyclohexane structure we just built in the last lesson.

  1. Select File|Open and select the file "cyclohexane". 

  2. Just to be sure you don't save your changes over the earlier file, select File|Save as and save the new structure as "cyclohexanol".

  3. Click on the Rotate icon and drag the tool in a downward motion inside the circle to rotate the molecule.  Position it so that three hydrogen atoms are pointing up and three are pointing down. 

  4. We will change one of the hydrogen atoms to oxygen.  Click on the Select icon , click on one of the hydrogen atoms that is pointing up, select the arrow button in the element type box and select oxygen.  Make sure the hybridization is sp3 .

  5. Click on the select tool and click in the workspace (no atoms or bonds) to select the entire molecule.

  6. Select Beautify|Comprehensive from the menu bar.  If the structure is drawn correctly, a hydrogen appears on the oxygen and the angles will be correct.

  7. Select File|Save as and save the new structure a "cyclohexanol".

Note that the OH group is pointing "up" in the axial position. In the next lesson, we will uses the Edit|Invert Chirality command from the Edit menu to invert the chirality of the OH group and place it pointing "out" in the equatorial position.