ap 5. Conformational Enantiomers and Cyclic Compounds a. Construct a model of methanol (CH3OH). Is methanol chiral? Why or why not? b. Orient your model so that the plane of symmetry (indicated by the dotted rectangle) contains the H-C-O-H bonds that are in the plane of the paper, as shown below: Now rotate the C-O bond, so that the plane no longer contains the O-H bond. All of the bonds in methanol freely rotate at room temperature, so you are just showing a different conformation of methanol. Does this conformation of methanol have a plane of symmetry? Yes_ No- Even though one conformation of methanol has a plane of symmetry, and one doesn’t, methanol is still considered to be achiral. It is only necessary to find one conformation with a plane of symmetry for a molecule to be achiral. Now consider cyclohexanol, shown below. Looking at the flat, hexagonal representation of cyclohexanol, does cyclohexanol contain a plane of symmetry? Yes No HOH