June 26, 2017
by Arvin Moser, Team Manager, Application Scientists, ACD/Labs
Originally published in 2008, the underlying essence of a structure elucidation process is to structurally distinguish an unknown from a set of possible isomers. This is evident by the number of possible isomers for a given molecular formula.
The chart below divides isomers into three groups: Structural/Constitutional/Regio, Spin and Stereo/Spatial isomers. Wikipedia links are included for further reading into the different isomer classifications.
Note: some of the classifications may overlap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_isomerism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomer
http://acdlabs.typepad.com/elucidation/2008/02/why-collect-nmr.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautomer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cis-trans_isomerism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiomer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diastereomer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromerism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclohexane_conformation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformational_isomerism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_compound
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topoisomer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_isomers_of_hydrogen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topicity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacticity
http://goldbook.iupac.org/list_sf_general.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isobar_(nuclide)