isomerism a level chemistry urgent help

How many isomers are there of C3H9N? I am able to do most question however I am stuck on this one. I could only find 2 isomerism both being positional isomers. I could not find any chain isomer or functional isomers. i am in year 12.

Reply 1

bl0bf1sh

Original post by nnn121337

You have two primary amines – see if you can think of any secondary amine and tertiary amine isomers :smile:

Reply 2

nnn121337

Original post by bl0bf1sh

You have two primary amines – see if you can think of any secondary amine and tertiary amine isomers :smile:

thanks for your help I am currently in year 12 i don't think i learned secondary amine and tertiary amine. so can you tell the isomers.

C-C-NH2-C
What would the name of this be?
C-NH2-C

Reply 3

bl0bf1sh

Original post by nnn121337

thanks for your help I am currently in year 12 i don't think i learned secondary amine and tertiary amine. so can you tell the isomers.

C-C-NH2-C
What would the name of this be?
C-NH2-C

The primary/secondary/tertiary/quaternary essentially refers to the number of carbons directly attached to the nitrogen – primary is 1 carbon (C–NH2), secondary is 2 (C–NH–C), etc. Bear in mind that nitrogen usually forms 3 bonds, so use this to work out how many hydrogens are attached. Not really needed for this question, but because the N has a lone pair of electrons (hopefully you know this?), it can also form a coordinate/dative covalent bond (see https://www.chemguide.co.uk/atoms/bonding/dative.html) and so form 4 bonds (quaternary amine), and the nitrogen in this case has a positive charge.

There's a good chemguide page explaining amines: https://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/amines/background.html

It helps to draw the structural formula to understand it properly (or molymods if you have them) – try and draw some viable compounds with the formula C3H9N :smile:

(You can also get C–N double or triple bonds but this won't work with the formula – too many hydrogens!)