What are Bond Line Views?

1 Answer
Jun 10, 2015

A bond-line view is a condensed way of representing the structural formula of a molecule.

Explanation:

For example, here is the structural formula of retinol, a compound that is important in the chemistry of vision.

chemwiki.ucdavis.edu

It takes a long time to write out all these atoms and bonds, so chemists have developed a shorthand method called a bond-line view.

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The rules for drawing bond-line structures are:

  • The carbon atoms and the hydrogen atoms attached to them are not shown.
  • Only the bonds between the carbon atoms are shown as lines.
  • The vertices and end of lines represent carbon atoms.
  • Any unfilled valences on carbon are assumed to be filled by hydrogen atoms.
  • All atoms other than carbon, plus any hydrogen atoms attached to them, are shown.
  • Exception: The hydrogen in an aldehyde group is usually shown.