BRAINCAKEChirality
Some molecules are chiral: they are not superimposable on their mirror image. Your hands are a good model. Your left hand is the mirror image of your right, but however you turn them, you cannot place one exactly on top of the other.
In organic chemistry, chirality usually comes from a chiral centre (also called an asymmetric carbon atom): a carbon atom bonded to four different atoms or groups. The four groups are arranged tetrahedrally, and there are two different ways to arrange four different groups around a tetrahedral carbon. These two arrangements are mirror images that cannot be superimposed.
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More in Optical Isomerism
- Optical Isomers
- Plane-Polarised Light
- Racemic Mixtures
- Racemates from Nucleophilic Addition
- Identifying Chiral Centres
All 6 lessons in Optical Isomerism · All AQA A-level Chemistry topics