Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Microdialysis of Ethanol During Operant Ethanol Self-administration and Ethanol Determination by Gas Chromatography
Published on: September 5, 2012
The role of secondary interactions on the preferred conformers of the fenchone-ethanol complex
Donatella Loru1, Isabel Peña, M Eugenia Sanz
1Department of Chemistry, King's College London, SE1 1DB London, UK. maria.sanz@kcl.ac.uk.
Abstract:
New atomic-level experimental data on the intermolecular non-covalent interactions between a common odorant and a relevant residue at odorant binding sites are reported. The preferred arrangements and binding interactions of fenchone, a common odorant and ethanol, a mimic of serine's side chain, have been unambiguously identified using a combination of high resolution rotational spectroscopy and computational methods. The observed conformers include homochiral (RR) and heterochiral (RS) conformers, with a slight preference for a heterochiral form, and exhibit primary OH-O hydrogen bonds between fenchone and ethanol. Secondary interactions play a key role in determining the relative configurations of fenchone and ethanol, and in shaping quite a flat potential energy surface, with many conformers close in energy and small barriers for interconversion.
Related Concept Videos
Conformity
Secondary Active Transport
Conformations of Butane
Secondary Healthcare System
Primary and Secondary Growth in Roots and Shoots
Conformations of Cycloalkanes

