In Organic Chemistry
Strustural isomers are molecules with the same molecular formula but different structures. There are two types of structural isomerism:
Chain isomerism
and
Functional group isomerism
In chain isomerism molecules can be branched or in a straight chain. In other words they have a different shape, which causes them to have different physical and chemical properties.
In functional group isomerism, the position of the functional group changers - and so changing the phsyical and chemical properties, and giving the isomers slightly different structures.
The diagrams below show all the isomers of C5H11OH.
As you can see their sturctures are quite different. And this particular molecule shows both chain and functional group isomerism.
Author: Catherine Spowage (document modification date: 21st may 2003)