Optical Isomerism

Optical isomerism

  • occurs when there are four different substituents added to one carbon atom

  • carbon is known as chiral centre

  • non superimposable mirror images

  • the mirror image results in enantiomers

Chiral centres

  • optical isomers are ‘chiral’

  • carbon centre is known as the chiral centre or the asymmetric carbon

  • centre is indicated by a * symbol

  • look at the group not just the atom

  • the number of optical isomers is given by 2^n where n = number of chiral carbons

  • chiral centre