Welcome to the CAChe Molecular Modeling Tutorials

Department of Chemistry

University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

Home
Getting Started
The Basics of CAChe
The User Interface
Simple Molecules
Inorganic Molecules & Ions
Organic Molecules
The Fragment Library
Viewing & Manipulating
Computing Properties
Optimizing Geometry
Molecular Orbitals
Spectral Properties
Predicting Reactivity
Energy Maps
General Chemistry
Ferrocene

Inverting the Chirality

Task: Change the O-H group on cyclohexanol from one position (axial) to another (equatorial)

Time: 4 minutes

We'll use the cyclohexanol we built by modifying cyclohexane.

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

  2. Rename it to reflect the axial configuration of the O-H group. Select File|Save as and save the structure as "cyclohexanol-ax".

  3. Click on the Select tool and click on the ring carbon with the O-H group.

  4. Select Edit|Invert Chirality from the menu bar to invert the hydrogen and O-H group groups.

  5. Click in the workspace (no atoms or bonds) to select the entire molecule. The hydrogen and O-H group have "swapped" places. 

  6. Select Beautify|Comprehensive from the menu bar to fix the geometry.  

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

This ends the tutorial on building organic molecules.  In the next module you will learn to use the Fragment Library to build molecules.

Begin with an overview of the Fragment Library.