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The meso compound must not be confused with a 50:50 racemic mixture of the two optically-active compounds, although neither will rotate light in a polarimeter. It is a requirement for two of the stereocenters in a meso compound to have at least two substituents in common (although having this characteristic does not necessarily mean that the ...
However, compounds that contain an even number of asymmetric atoms sometimes lack chirality because they are arranged in mirror-symmetric pairs, and are known as meso compounds. For instance, meso tartaric acid (shown on the right) has two asymmetric carbon atoms, but it does not exhibit enantiomerism because there is a mirror symmetry plane.
As a result, different enantiomers of a compound may have substantially different biological effects. Pure enantiomers also exhibit the phenomenon of optical activity and can be separated only with the use of a chiral agent. In nature, only one enantiomer of most chiral biological compounds, such as amino acids (except glycine, which is achiral ...
For example, two hydrogen atoms adjacent to the carbonyl group in cis-2,6-dimethylcyclohexanone are enantiotopic; they are related by an internal plane of symmetry passing through the carbonyl group, but deprotonation on one side of the carbonyl group or on the other will generate compounds that are enantiomers.
Stereoisomers have the same atoms or isotopes connected by bonds of the same type, but differ in the relative positions of those atoms in space. Two broad types of stereoisomers exist, enantiomers and diastereomers. Enantiomers have identical physical properties but diastereomers do not. [7]
This holds true also for compounds having more than two stereocenters: if two stereoisomers have at least one descriptor in common, they are diastereomers. If all the descriptors are opposite, they are enantiomers. A meso compound is an achiral molecule, despite having two or more stereogenic centers.
Enantiomers of a compound with more than one stereocenter are also diastereomers of the other stereoisomers of that compound that are not their mirror image (that is, excluding the opposing enantiomer). Diastereomers have different physical properties (unlike most aspects of enantiomers) and often different chemical reactivity. Diastereomers ...
All stereoisomers that are not enantiomers are diastereomers. Diastereomerism also exists in alkenes. Alkenes are designated Z or E depending on group priority on adjacent carbon atoms. E/Z notation describes the absolute stereochemistry of the double bond. Cis/trans notation is also used to describe the relative orientations of groups.