Conformational Isomerism - Equilibrium Population of Conformers

Equilibrium Population of Conformers

The population of different conformers follows a Boltzmann distribution:

$\frac{N_i}{N_{total}} = \frac {e^{-E_{rel}/RT}} {\sum_{k=1}^{N_{total}} e^{-E_k/RT} }$

The left hand side is the equilibrium ratio of conformer i to the total. is the relative energy of the i-th conformer from the minimum energy conformer. is the relative energy of the k-th conformer from the minimum energy conformer. R is the molar ideal gas constant equal to 8.31 J/(mol·K) and T is the temperature in kelvins (K). The denominator of the right side is the partition function.

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