What does it mean for a compound to be a meso isomer?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Nov 30, 2015

A meso compound is symmetrical but has an even number of chiral centers. It has a plane of symmetry down the middle. It has a superposable mirror image, i.e. the mirror image looks identical.

You can determine that the left chiral center is S and the right chiral center is R.

The reason why it is optically inactive is that its two chiral centers rotate plane-polarized light by the same degrees in opposite directions (CW vs. CCW).

Related questions
Impact of this question
320 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License