Stereoisomers vs confomers?

Question

if a tri substituted chair undergoes a chair flip but one substituent group stays in the same up position while the rest all change as they should in a chair flip, are the two molecules conformers or stereoisomers?

for example at the substituent group positions on the first chair are C1: eq C2: ax C4:eq after the chair flip they are C1: ax C2: eq C4: eq

C1 and C4 have the same substituent group if this is important information

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hey Catherine!

This would be a stereoisomer, specifically a diastereomer. These two compounds would no longer be mirror images of each other since one of the substitutions switched conformations while everything else stays the same. It helps me to think of it in terms of R and S around the chiral centers.

The conformational isomers would be the boat, twist-boat, and half-chair. That sort of thing.