Chirality?

[ChemSiddiqui]

Hi, can any 1 explain what is chirality in molecules and how do we find the chiral centre from a given compound, for example in citronellol(C10H20O or C10H19OH).

 

easy explainations will be most appreciated?

[Darkblade48]

Chirality is essentially when two molecules are mirror images of each other. They are non-superimposable.

 

Using carbon as an example, a molecule such as CH4 cannot be chiral, as you can rotate it any which way, and it will still be superimposable. However, a molecule of (say) CFBrCl and its mirror image will be non-superimposable, causing it to be chiral.

 

In the citronellol case, essentially, you are looking for a carbon molecule that has 4 different substituent groups. If you take the entire citronellol molecule and mirror it, you will have the other enantiomer.

[woelen]

Think of it as your hands. They are very similar, but they are non-overlappable. The two hands are mutual mirror images.

 

Indeed, each C-atom with 4 different groups attached to it is a chiral center. In more complicated molecules, it may be quite hard to find all of them, usually they contain multiple chiral centers.