Question

How many optical isomers does glucose have?

Answer 1

There are 16 optical isomers of glucose.

Explanation:

The structure of glucose is

We see that carbon atoms 2, 3, 4, and 5 are chiral centres.

The maximum number of optical isomers is `2^n`, where `n` is the number of chiral centres.

In glucose, `n = 4`, so `2^4` = 16 possible isomers.

Here are their structures.

The names of the above aldohexoses are:

`"D-allose | D-altrose | D-glucose | D-mannose"`
`"D-gulose | D-idose | D-galactose | D-talose"`
`"L-allose | L-altrose | L-glucose | L-mannose"`
`"L-gulose | L-idose | L-galactose | L-talose"`