Cyclic Ethers
Cyclic Ethers - Related Videos
08:37
Cyclic Voltammetry (CV)
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2023
Source: Laboratory of Dr. Kayla Green — Texas Christian University A Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) experiment involves the scan of a range of potential voltages while measuring current. In the CV experiment, the potential of an immersed, stationary electrode is scanned from a predetermined starting potential to a final value (called the switching potential) and then the reverse scan is obtained. This gives a 'cyclic' sweep of potentials and the current vs. potential curve derived from the data is...
02:29
Ethers from Alcohols: Alcohol Dehydration and Williamson Ether Synthesis
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2023
Overview Ethers can be prepared from organic compounds by various methods. Some of them are discussed below, Preparation of Ethers by Alcohol Dehydration In this method, in the presence of protic acids, alcohol dehydrates to produce alkenes and ethers under different conditions. For example, in the presence of sulphuric acid, dehydration of ethanol at 413 K yields ethoxyethane, whereas it yields ethene at 443 K. This method is a nucleophilic substitution reaction. The two alcohol molecules...
02:28
Structure and Nomenclature of Ethers
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2025
Structure and Bonding Ethers are organic compounds with an ether functional group which is characterized by an oxygen atom connected to two — identical or different — alkyl, aryl, or vinyl groups. The C–O–C linkage in dimethyl ether — the simplest ether — has an approximately tetrahedral bond angle of 110.3 degrees. The oxygen atom is sp3- hybridized, with the C–O distance being about 140 pm. Classification of Ethers Based on their attached substituent groups, ethers can be classified into two...
02:36
Crown Ethers
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2023
Crown ethers are cyclic polyethers that contain multiple oxygen atoms, usually arranged in a regular pattern. The first crown ether was synthesized by Charles Pederson while working at DuPont in 1967. For this work, Pedersen was co-awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Crown ethers are named using the formula x-crown-y, where x is the total number of atoms in the ring and y is the number of ether oxygen atoms. The term 'crown' refers to the crown-like shape that these ether molecules take.
08:48
Development of a Backbone Cyclic Peptide Library as Potential Antiparasitic Therapeutics Using Microwave Irradiation
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Cited by 10 •
2016
A simple and general method for the synthesis of cyclic peptides using microwave irradiation is outlined. This procedure enables the synthesis of backbone cyclic peptides with a collection of different conformations while retaining the side chains and the pharmacophoric moieties., and therefore, allows to screen for the bioactive conformation.
FAQs
The oxygen lone pairs give cyclic ethers hydrogen-bond-accepting ability and allow coordination with other species. These electronic features contribute to their polarity and help explain why they can function as solvents or interact with reagents during chemical transformations. The oxygen therefore affects both how these compounds behave physically and how they participate in synthesis.
Ring strain can make a cyclic ether more reactive because the ring contains greater energetic tension. Strained members such as epoxides are especially susceptible to activation under acidic conditions, followed by nucleophilic ring opening. Consequently, ring strain helps distinguish cyclic ethers that mainly provide stability or solvent behavior from those useful for targeted bond-forming transformations.
Acidic conditions can protonate the ring oxygen, activating a strained cyclic ether toward attack by a nucleophile. Nucleophilic ring opening then relieves ring strain and produces a changed molecular framework. This sequence is important in organic synthesis because it converts the ether ring from a relatively stable structure into a reactive intermediate for further chemical modification.
Ring size influences both physical properties and reactivity, while the oxygen atom contributes polarity through its lone pairs. Considering these features together helps chemists select a cyclic ether for a desired role, such as a solvent or synthetic intermediate. The balance between polarity, stability, and ring reactivity determines how useful a particular structure may be.
Their oxygen atoms provide polarity, hydrogen-bond-accepting ability, and coordination capacity, while many cyclic ether structures also offer useful stability. This combination supports their use as solvents in chemical work. The specific ring size can further affect physical properties, allowing the compound’s behavior to be matched to the requirements of a reaction or preparation.
Cyclic ethers can serve as intermediates because their rings combine a stable framework with reactivity that can be adjusted by ring size and strain. In particular, acidic activation of strained rings enables nucleophilic opening and molecular transformation. This makes them relevant to carbohydrate chemistry and to broader organic synthesis involving controlled structural changes.
Cyclic ethers appear in carbohydrate chemistry, polymer production, and pharmaceutical research. Their usefulness across these areas comes from the combination of polarity, stability, and tunable reactivity. In carbohydrate-related work they can support synthetic transformations, while polymer and pharmaceutical investigations can exploit their solvent properties, structural frameworks, or ability to undergo further chemical modification.