Why is glycine achiral?

1 Answer
anor277
May 17, 2016

Because glycine contains no chiral centres.

Explanation:

Glycine, #H_2N-CH_2C(=O)OH# contains no chiral centre, and, therefore, its mirror image is superposable on the original. For this reason, glycine is not handed.

On the other hand, alanine, #H_3C-CH(NH_2)CO_2H#, does contain such a chiral centre. I leave it to you to find it. I have not presented the zwitterionic forms for simplicity, but the handedness persists in this form as well.

Related questions
See all questions in Chiral and Achiral Molecules
Impact of this question
13237 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License