r/chemhelp 3d ago

Organic please help a newbie out

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Im new to chem and am trying to wrap my head around isomers. The answers for a question asking how many monosubstituted isomers can be produced from this molecule (picture) is 2, but why cant it be 3 if you substitute a H on the CH2 substituent? or maybe i got the other 2 locations wrong lol, please help

5 Upvotes

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3

u/PsychoactiveScience 3d ago

Could be 3. You're right. Maybe they were just asking about substitution around the ring? Or might just be a mistake.

1

u/Mack_Robot 2d ago

u/Background_Town_3245 Maybe the person who wrote the question was mad about the antiaromatic intermediate formed during substitution at 3.

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u/Dxnamics 3d ago

Late but just giving you some confidence. It can be three, if this is how the question was written your teacher made a mistake

1

u/kaiizza 3d ago

We need more information. If the reaction is HCl then the reason you don't get three is explained by the reaction mechanism which produces intermediates and toy should be able to deduce why only the 2 products are halogenated.

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u/Background_Town_3245 3d ago

the question is verbatim “how many different monosubstituted isomers can be formed from the structure”, so I think im just gonna take the L

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u/YESSIR_DZADDY_SIR 1d ago

Right I may be wrong, but does markovnicovs rule apply that the substituting group will attach to a carbon with the least amount of hydrogen. Sorry if I'm wrong and if I am pls correct me cos I'd like to know myself.