Question

What is a torsional strain?

Answer 1

Torsional strain:

1. Torsional strain is known as the resistance to bond twisting in a certain type of chemical compound.
2. When the atoms separate from the three bonds and are placed in eclipsed conformation in place of stable staggered conformation, it will cause torsional strain between the bonds.
3. It is directly related to the bond angle, which is also related to the rotation of bonds.
4. Torsional strain, where the conformations are not so much staggered, may be characterized as that type of strain encountered by the bonds.
5. So, there exists a torsion pressure at any existing angle, which must be other than 60, 120, or 180. Also, only those atoms, which are divided by only three bonds, will experience torsional strain if ever occur.
6. The main difference between steric and torsional strain is that when the molecule is continuously spinning around a bond, we can not minimize the steric strain.
7. However, the torsional strain can be reduced; It can be done by rotating the molecule around a bond.

Thus torsional strain is equivalent to the shear strain of a shaft in torsion.