Optical Isomers & Chirality
Optical isomerism
- Stereoisomers are molecules that have the same structural formula but have the atoms arranged differently in space
- There are two types of stereoisomerism
- Geometrical (E / Z)
- Optical
- A carbon atom that has four different atoms or groups of atoms attached to it is called a chiral carbon or chiral centre
- Chira comes from a Greek word meaning hand, so we talk about these molecules having a handedness
- Compounds with a chiral centre (chiral molecules) exist as two optical isomers which are also known as enantiomers
- The enantiomers are non-superimposable mirror images of each other just like your left and right hand
A molecule has a chiral centre when the carbon atom is bonded to four different atoms or group of atoms; this gives rises to enantiomers
