Are 1-bromobutane and 1-pentanol chiral?

1 Answer
Mar 23, 2018

Consider 1-bromobutane (with hydrogens for demonstration),

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The terminal carbon has only three different connections, not the four needed to satisfy the requirement for a chirality center.

Consider 1-pentanol,

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Again, the terminal carbon is stuck in the same situation!

If one of the hydrogens turned into a phenyl group, you could argue each had one chirality center and one enantiomer.