Quaternary ammonium salts differ from simple primary, secondary, and tertiary amines in that: — Amines Chemistry Question

💡 Solution & Explanation

Quaternary ammonium salts ($R_4N^+ X^-$) involve nitrogen bonded to four groups, thus lacking the lone pair found in simple amines (A) and bearing a formal positive charge (B). Because there is no lone pair to undergo rapid umbrella inversion, quaternary salts with four distinct groups possess a stable chiral N-stereocenter and exhibit isolable enantiomerism (C). They lack $N-H$ bonds, so they cannot intermolecularly hydrogen bond with themselves (D).