Staggered conformation

In organic chemistry, a staggered conformation is a chemical conformation of an ethane-like moiety abcX–Ydef in which the substituents a, b, and c are at the maximum distance from d, e, and f; this requires the torsion angles to be 60°.

[1] It is the opposite of an eclipsed conformation, in which those substituents are as close to each other as possible.

For some molecules such as those of n-butane, there can be special versions of staggered conformations called gauche and anti; see first Newman projection diagram in conformational isomerism.

Staggered/eclipsed configurations also distinguish different crystalline structures of e.g. cubic/hexagonal boron nitride, and diamond/lonsdaleite.

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