CONFORMATIONS OF BUTANERotation about the central C-C bond of butane generates an essentially infinite number of conformations, ranging in energy from the anti- form (below left; the most stable) to the eclipsed form shown below right. Being an energy minimum, the anti-form is also a conformer.
anti eclipsed There are two other (less stable) conformers, the gauche forms shown below. They are mirror images of each other, and would be enantiomers if we lived at very much lower tempertures.
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