CHIRAL COMPOUND Meaning and
Definition
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A chiral compound refers to a molecule that possesses chirality, meaning it cannot be superimposed on its mirror image. Chirality is a property of certain organic compounds that have carbon atoms attached to four different substituents. These compounds exist as two distinct mirror images known as enantiomers. Chiral compounds play a significant role in various areas of chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology.
The word chiral is derived from the Greek word "cheir," which means hand, as chirality is often described as "handedness." Just as our hands are non-superimposable mirror images of each other, chiral compounds exhibit this same property. The mirror image of a chiral compound is called its enantiomer, and the two enantiomers can have different physical and chemical properties.
Chirality has profound implications in pharmaceuticals, as the two enantiomers of a drug can exhibit different pharmacological activities. For example, one enantiomer may be beneficial for therapeutic purposes, while the other could cause adverse side effects. Recognizing and separating enantiomers is crucial because they can have different interactions with biological systems.
Chiral compounds are often studied and distinguished using various analytical techniques, such as chromatography and spectroscopy. Additionally, researchers have developed chiral catalysts, which have applications in asymmetric synthesis, enabling the selective production of one enantiomer over the other.
Overall, chiral compounds are of utmost importance in understanding the structure, behavior, and applications of organic molecules in diverse fields, making them a fundamental concept in chemistry.
Common Misspellings for CHIRAL COMPOUND
- xhiral compound
- vhiral compound
- fhiral compound
- dhiral compound
- cgiral compound
- cbiral compound
- cniral compound
- cjiral compound
- cuiral compound
- cyiral compound
- chural compound
- chjral compound
- chkral compound
- choral compound
- ch9ral compound
- ch8ral compound
- chieal compound
- chidal compound
- chifal compound
- chital compound
Etymology of CHIRAL COMPOUND
The word "chiral" is derived from the Greek word "cheir", which means "hand". It was coined by the Scottish mathematician and physicist Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) in 1894.
Lord Kelvin used the term "chiral" to describe molecules that have a unique property of not being superimposable on their mirror images. In other words, chiral molecules are non-superimposable mirror image pairs, just like our left and right hands.
The suffix "al" in "chiral" comes from the word "amphichiral", which was a concept coined by the French chemist Louis Pasteur. Pasteur observed that certain organic molecules, such as tartaric acid, occurred in two mirror image forms. He called them "amphichiral" because they could exhibit both left-handed and right-handed versions.
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