Co-reporter:Lan Chen; Hongwei Sun;Chengming Lai
Journal of Chemical Education 2015 Volume 92(Issue 8) pp:1422-1425
Publication Date(Web):February 24, 2015
DOI:10.1021/ed500898p
There are two main difficulties in studying molecular symmetry of dihedral point groups. One is locating the C2 axes perpendicular to the Cn axis, while the other is finding the σd planes which pass through the Cn axis and bisect the angles formed by adjacent C2 axes. In this paper, a method of learning to draw 2D projections has been proposed to identify symmetry elements. Molecules with similar projective polygons are also compared to discuss the differences in point groups.