Gauche-Butane

This also is a stable structure of butane. While it is not the most stable structure, this structure corresponds to a local minimum on the potential energy surface. The methyl groups attached to the central C-C bond are in a gauche relation. Note that the conformations about all bonds are staggered.


Figure. The MP2(full)/6-31G* optimized structure of all-staggered gauche butane.