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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.
Chirality (/ k aɪ ˈ r æ l ɪ t i /) is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word chirality is derived from the Greek χείρ (kheir), "hand", a familiar chiral object. An object or a system is chiral if it is distinguishable from its mirror image; that is, it cannot be superposed (not to be confused with ...
Until 1951, it was not possible to obtain the absolute configuration of chiral compounds. It was at some time arbitrarily decided that (+)-glyceraldehyde was the D-enantiomer. [4] [5] The configuration of other chiral compounds was then related to that of (+)-glyceraldehyde by sequences of chemical reactions.
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.
A chirality center (chiral center) is a type of stereocenter. A chirality center is defined as an atom holding a set of four different ligands (atoms or groups of atoms) in a spatial arrangement which is non-superposable on its mirror image. Chirality centers must be sp 3 hybridized, meaning that a chirality center can only have single bonds. [5]
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).
The "D-" and "L-" prefixes are used to specify the enantiomer of chiral organic compounds in biochemistry and are based on the compound's absolute configuration relative to (+)-glyceraldehyde, which is the D-form by definition. The prefix used to indicate absolute configuration is not directly related to the (+) or (−) prefix used to indicate ...
Axial chirality differs from central chirality (point chirality) in that axial chirality does not require a chiral center such as an asymmetric carbon atom, the most common form of chirality in organic compounds. Bonding to asymmetric carbon has the form Cabcd where a, b, c, and d must be distinct groups.