I have a fair understanding of the basics of Chirality but my Chemistry textbook doesn’t seem to explain why some chemical compounds form isomers. I guess my question is: What causes Enantiomers (non-superimposable mirror images) to exist? If they are comprised of the same components then what causes those constituents to attach in different ways?
In: Chemistry
I’ve done some wider reading and think I have a better understanding of the answer. Incase someone else comes across this post looking for an answer:
Standard chemical synthesis generally produces a racemic mixture (that is both isomers are present) while natural products are usually of one form only, single enantiomers. Chemists have two options when isolating the desired isomer. 1) Firstly synthesise a racemic mixture of the molecule and then separating the two enantiomers with a chemical process known as ‘resolution’ (using an enzyme as a catalyst to stimulate the reaction of a chiral molecule but not it’s enantiomer) or; 2) they can control the conditions with chiral inorganic catalysts so that only one enantiomer is formed. This process is known as ‘asymmetric sythesis’ and was developed by 2001 Nobel Prize chemists William Knowles, Ryoji Noyori and Barry Sharpless.
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