Boats and Molecules

<H5> Apical</H5> <IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE SRC="Apical.gif"> In the apical isomer the the empty faces (red, pink, pink) meet at the red apex and are indicated by the heavy edges. The methyl groups that nominally over the (blue, pink, pink) faces sharing and edge with the empty faces are actually located nearly over the common edge. We hypothesize that this is to minimize repulsion between the negatively charged methyl groups. The methyl groups take up a nearly octahederal array surrounding the octahederal lithium array.