Question

How many compounds would there be in a combinatorial library of ester compounds made from every isomer of monofluorobenzoic acid and every possible alkyl alcohol with 4 or less carbon atoms?

1. 11
2. 24
3.12
4.21

i know its either 21 or 24 but im not sure :S
can someone help me out :(

Answer 1

Hey so basically you have to list out all the isomers of monofluorobenzoic acid and the isomers of all the alkyl alcohols with 4 or less carbons and then multiply then. There are 3 isomers of monofluorobenzoic acid (ortho, meta, para). There are 4 types of alkyl alchols with 4 carbons and less: methanol, ethanol, proponal and butanol. methanol and ethanol don't have isomers, propanol has 2 isomers and butanol has 4. so that's 8 alkyl alcohols when you add them up... 8x3 = 24.