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structures of common hydrocarbon compounds chemical structure of methane eclipsed conformation of ethane staggered conformation of ethane intermediate and end products from raw benzene chemical bonding in benzene
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Three-dimensional structures

chemical structure of methane
chemical structure of methane
Tetrahedral geometry of methane: (A) stick-and-ball model and (B) diagram showing bond angles and distances. (Plain bonds represent bonds in the plane of the image; wedge and dashed bonds represent those directed toward and away from the viewer, respectively.)

Most organic molecules, including all alkanes, are not planar but are instead characterized by three-dimensional structures. Methane, for example, has the shape of a regular tetrahedron with carbon at the centre and a hydrogen atom at each corner. Each H―C―H angle in methane is 109.5°, and each C―H bond distance is 1.09 angstroms (Å; 1Å = 1 × 10−10 metre). Higher alkanes such as butane have bonds that are tetrahedrally disposed on each carbon except that the resulting C―C―C and H―C―H angles are slightly larger and smaller, respectively, than the ideal value of 109.5° characteristic of a perfectly symmetrical tetrahedron. Carbon-carbon bond distances in alkanes are normally close to 1.53 angstroms.

eclipsed conformation of ethane
eclipsed conformation of ethane
Eclipsed conformation is the least stable of all ethane conformations because the repulsive forces between electron pairs in the C―H bonds of adjacent carbons are maximized.
staggered conformation of ethane
staggered conformation of ethane
Staggered conformation is the most stable of all ethane conformations because the repulsive forces between electron pairs in the C―H bonds of adjacent carbons are minimized.

An important aspect of the three-dimensional shape of alkanes and other organic molecules is their conformations, the nonidentical arrangements of atoms that are generated by rotation about single bonds. Of the infinite number of conformations possible for ethane—which are related by tiny increments of rotation of one CH3 group with respect to the other—the eclipsed conformation is the least stable, and the staggered conformation is the most stable. The eclipsed conformation is said to suffer torsional strain because of repulsive forces between electron pairs in the C―H bonds of adjacent carbons. These repulsive forces are minimized in the staggered conformation since all C―H bonds are as far from one another as possible. Although rotation about the C―C bond of ethane is exceedingly rapid (millions of times per second at room temperature), at any instant most of the molecules exist in the staggered conformation.

For butane, two different staggered conformations, called anti and gauche, are possible. Methyl is a larger substituent than hydrogen, and the greater separation between methyl groups in the anti conformation makes it slightly more stable than the gauche.

Hydrocarbon. The two different staggered conformations (anti and gauche) for butane.

The three-dimensional structures of higher alkanes are governed by the tetrahedral disposition of the four bonds to each carbon atom, by the preference for staggered conformations, and by the greater stability of anti C―C―C―C arrangements over gauche.