What is #"stereostructure"#?
1 Answer
Where you put your speakers in the room, and how you position your CD and turntable....and are the CD and LP collections accessible?
Explanation:
Stereostructure, or more commonly stereochemistry, is the study of the relative spatial arrangement of atoms in molecules, and how knowledge of such geometry can influence the geometric properties of the products obtained.
At first year level, it is introduced in organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry. Organic chemistry is an area where stereochemistry is EMPHASIZED.
Any carbon atom in a tetrahedral array with four different substituents, i.e.
The molecule on the left CANNOT be superimposed on the molecular on the right....just as you cannot superimpose your left hand on your right hand....try this with a friend...shake his right hand with your left hand, and see how far you get...
The interchange of ANY two substituents on either carbon results in the enantiomer. Interchange again, and it need not be the original two substituents, you get the enantiomer of an enantiomer, that is THE ORIGINAL STRUCTURE. Capisce?
Bioloigical chemistry is replete with examples of stereochemistry, and chirality, and these must be rigorously considered in drug synthesis....
Chemists routinely use models to help to vizualize geometry and stereochemistry. It is hard to think in 3 dimensions.....and thus use of models can inform our sense of molecular geometry...
