How do a pair of enantiomers differ?

1 Answer
anor277
Mar 1, 2017

"The same way that your left hand differs from your right hand...."

Explanation:

"Or your left shoe differs from your right shoe,"

"or your left glove differs from your right glove."

A chiral molecule exists as PAIRS of non-superposable mirror images. Structurally, a pair of so-called enantiomers ARE identical, in that their connectivities are the same. Nevertheless, they cannot be superimposed on account of their handedness.

For information on diastereomers see here.

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