Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The term "chiral" in general is used to describe the object that is non-superposable on its mirror image. [18] 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-", "left-handed" or, if they have no bias ...
Chiral molecules will usually have a stereogenic element from which chirality arises. The most common type of stereogenic element is a stereogenic center, or stereocenter. In the case of organic compounds, stereocenters most frequently take the form of a carbon atom with four distinct (different) groups attached to it in a tetrahedral geometry.
Chiral purity is a measure of the purity of a chiral drug. Other synonyms employed include enantiomeric excess , enantiomer purity, enantiomeric purity, and optical purity. Optical purity is an obsolete term since today most of the chiral purity measurements are done using chromatographic techniques (not based on optical principles).
Chiral molecules in the receptors in our noses can tell the difference between these things. Chirality affects biochemical reactions, and the way a drug works depends on what kind of enantiomer it is. Many drugs are chiral and it is important that the shape of the drug matches the shape of the cell receptor it is meant to affect.
For example, an isotropic chiral material can comprise a random dispersion of handed molecules or inclusions, such as a liquid consisting of chiral molecules. Handedness can also be present at the macroscopic level in structurally chiral materials .
Optical activity occurs due to molecules dissolved in a fluid or due to the fluid itself only if the molecules are one of two (or more) stereoisomers; this is known as an enantiomer. The structure of such a molecule is such that it is not identical to its mirror image (which would be that of a different stereoisomer, or the "opposite enantiomer").
Homochirality is a uniformity of chirality, or handedness.Objects are chiral when they cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, the left and right hands of a human are approximately mirror images of each other but are not their own mirror images, so they are chiral.
Chiral inversion is the process of conversion of one enantiomer of a chiral molecule to its mirror-image version with no other change in the molecule. [1] [2] [3] [4]Chiral inversion happens depending on various factors (viz. biological-, solvent-, light-, temperature- induced, etc.) and the energy barrier energy barrier associated with the stereogenic element present in the chiral molecule. 2 ...