I have to read it about chiral .bou how can we conform it is chiral.carbon atom having all different it called chiral.chiral way we have to identifive

atul labana raysing labana, 13 years ago

Grade:Upto college level

1 Answers

suryakanth AskiitiansExpert-IITB

105 Points

13 years ago

A chiral molecule is a type of molecule that lacks an internal plane of symmetry and has a non-superimposable mirror image. The feature that is most often the cause of chirality in molecules is the presence of an asymmetric carbon atom

The term chiral in general is used to describe an object that is non-superposable on its mirror image. Achiral (not chiral) objects are objects that are identical to their mirror image. Human hands are perhaps the most universally recognized example of chirality: The left hand is a non-superposable mirror image of the right hand; no matter how the two hands are oriented, it is impossible for all the major features of both hands to coincide. This difference in symmetry becomes obvious if someone attempts to shake the right hand of a person using his left hand, or if a left-handed glove is placed on a right hand. The term chirality is derived from the Greek word for hand, χειρ (cheir). It is a mathematical approach to the concept of "handedness".

In chemistry, chirality usually refers to molecules. Two mirror images of a chiral molecule are called enantiomers or optical isomers. Pairs of enantiomers are often designated as "right-" and "left-handed."

Molecular chirality is of interest because of its application to stereochemistry in inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry, and supramolecular chemistry.

The symmetry of a molecule (or any other object) determines whether it is chiral. A molecule is achiral (not chiral) when an improper rotation, that is a combination of a rotation and a reflection in a plane, perpendicular to the axis of rotation, results in the same molecule - see chirality (mathematics). An equivalent definition is that a chiral molecule lacks a plane of symmetry. For tetrahedral molecules, the molecule is chiral if all four substituents are different.
A chiral molecule is not necessarily asymmetric (devoid of any symmetry element), as it can have, for example, rotational symmetry.

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