tert-Butyl group

The tert-butyl group is a piece of a chemical in organic chemistry. Its systematic names are 1,1-dimethylethyl or 2-methylpropan-2-yl, but these are rarely used.

It is a type of alkyl group, meaning it is made of only carbon and hydrogen atoms, and has no double bonds or triple bonds. The chemical formula of the tert-butyl group is −C(CH3)3. In large molecules, this is sometimes shortened to tBu, tBu, or t-Bu. It is one of four possible shapes of a butyl group.

Chemistry

tert-Butyl is the smallest alkyl group that has no hydrogen atoms on the carbon atom that connects to the rest of the molecule. This means that tert-butyl compounds are very hard to remove hydrogen from, even when attached to other groups like carbonyl that normally make it easier to remove hydrogen from alkyl groups.

The tert-butyl group's three methyl groups take up a lot of space, giving the group a lot of steric bulk that helps keep other molecules away from the group they are attached to. This makes tert-butyl a popular protecting group.

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