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
It just depends on the reaction that takes places to give rise to that compound! Some reactions form racemic mixtures, which means they consist of different isomers, because the mechanism of the action is non-specific in terms of chirality, whereas other reactions’ mechanisms are more specific and cause the path of attack of one atom’s electrons to the other’s to be very particular so only one kind of isomer can form from the reaction.
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