How can I tell what the center of a compound is? I'm trying to draw the structure.?

Question

Here's the compound

NO2 C6H4 CHOH CHNHCOCHCL2 CH2OH

It looks like 5 different ones combined. How do I find the center?

this is supposed to be one long structure.

Answer 1

It takes experience, practice, and a lot of model building and Lewis structure drawing to predict the center of some molecules.

In some cases the center doesn't even exist on an atom, as in the case of benzene - C6H6:

ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene

But for small molecules like NO2, CH2O and CH3OH

The center in GENERALLY located at the atom with p orbitals that has the fewest occupied.

So N, and C would be the centers for these three.

The other one is too complicated - you will have to build a model of that one to find the center atom.

Answer 2

This is the antibiotic chloramphenicol, also called chloromycetin. If you Google it or look in wikipedia, you'll see a clearer structure. I don't understand what you mean by the center.