fuck explaining like im 5 explain like im the dumbest 2 year old youve ever met. every explanation ive read (even on this sub) doesnt make sense. neither does the hand example
In: 0
Chiral means “handed”. As in, two shapes which are “the same”, but mirror-images – like your hands, or left and right shoes. All the parts are connected the same, but however you try, you can’t turn them around so that they aren’t mirror images any more.
Molecules can be like that. Let’s build one.
Imagine a tetrahedral die (a d4, if you ever played D&D or similar – we’ll get to molecules in a moment). Label the four corners 1, 2, 3 and 4. Put it on the table with the 1 at the top, and look down at the other three corners. Depending on where you put the numbers, the 2, 3, 4 could go clockwise, or they could go anticlockwise – and they’re different, like your shoes. There’s no way to move the die around and make them go the other way. The two arrangements are mirror-images; the die is “chiral”.
OK, now a real molecule. CClFlBrI. One carbon atom in the middle, its bonds forming a tetrahedron. Four other, different atoms (chlorine, fluorine, bromine, iodine) on the bonds, “labelling” the corners. Except now, instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, the labels are CL, Fl, Br, I. Look down from, say, the CL, and the sequence Fl, Br, I could run either clockwise or anticlockwise. The two shapes are mirror images, and you can’t turn one into the other by just turning it around. The molecule is chiral, just like the die.
You can add more complex arrangements of atoms (a hydroxyl group, a longer hydrocarbon chain, whatever takes your fancy) in place of the single atoms; the principle will stay the same. As long as the structures at the four corners are all different, there will be mirror image shapes. That’s chirality, basically.
Latest Answers