What are the relative steric demands of carboxyl and methyl groups?

The relative steric demands of carboxyl and methyl groups are compared by contrasting the difference quantityδ ≡ δH o f (g, ArCOOH) — δH o f (g, ArCH3) for a collection of alkylated benzoic acids and toluenes with the value for Ar=C6H5, the archetypical (i.e., unsubstituted) benzoic acid and toluene. We conclude that carboxyl and methyl groups are nearly the same size.Peer reviewe