Which parts of acetylsalicylic acid are rigid? ?

The rigid parts of acetylsalicylic acid are and .

Further explanation:

bonds are the bonds formed by the sideways overlap of two p orbitals. Rotation essentially means that parallel orientation would have to be destroyed. Thus the breaking of such bonds requires a considerable amount of energy hence they do not rotate freely.

Acetylsalicylic acid is commonly referred as aspirin. Its IUPAC name is .

In terms of rigidity, the bonds that are easily rotated without any restriction of breakage of bonds are not regarded as rigid while the bonds that do not rotate due to restricted rotation due to pi-electron cloud are not so rigid.

In acetyl-salicylic acid, there are two kinds of bonds namely the carbon-carbon within the aromatic ring and carbon-oxygen  bond. Hence these are the only two rigid bonds that can only be rotated if they are broken. The carbon-oxygen  bond and the carbon-carbon  bond in the ring are evident in the image attached.

Therefore the rigid parts of acetylsalicylic acid include ring structure and .

Learn more:

1. What happens to the reducing agent during redox reaction?:link

2. Whether carbon dioxide and water have the same geometry or not link

Answer details:

Grade: High School

Subject: Chemistry

Chapter: Chemical bonds

Keywords: Acetylsalicylic acid, sideways overlap, p orbitals, restricted rotation, aromatic ring,carbon-oxygen bond, and carbon-carbon bond.