Answer to Question #123681 in General Chemistry for 250300183747

Question

What do you understand by the following terms
a. Chirality
b. Enantiomers
c. Racemic mixture
d. Stereoisomerism

Answer 1

Chirality is the property of a molecule not to combine in space with its mirror image.

Enantiomers - a pair of stereoisomers, which are mirror images of each other, not compatible in space.

A racemic mixture is a mixture of equal amounts of enantiomers of one substance. It does not have optical activity.

In stereochemistry, stereoisomerism, or spatial isomerism, is a form of isomerism in which molecules have the same molecular formula and sequence of bonded atoms (constitution), but differ in the three-dimensional orientations of their atoms in space.