BRAINCAKEPlane-Polarised Light
Ordinary light is made of waves that vibrate in all planes at right angles to the direction the light travels. If it passes through a polariser (a polarising filter), only the vibrations in one plane get through. This is plane-polarised light.
A substance that rotates the plane of plane-polarised light is optically active. Chiral compounds are optically active; achiral compounds are not, so light passes through their solutions with its plane unchanged.
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More in Optical Isomerism
- Chirality
- Optical Isomers
- Racemic Mixtures
- Racemates from Nucleophilic Addition
- Identifying Chiral Centres
All 6 lessons in Optical Isomerism · All AQA A-level Chemistry topics