Chemistry: Organic Chemistry

Enantiomers mixed together in equal concentrations = Racemic mixture. This type of mixture does not rotate plane-polarized light 

Enantiomers have the same chemical and physical characteristics except for two cases:

1. Interactions with other chiral compounds 
2. Interactions with polarized light 

The max number of optically active isomers that a single compounds can have is related to the number of its chiral centers by: 

• Maximum number of optically active isomers = 2^n, where 'n' is the number of chiral centers

Meso Compound - Compound that can be split with a plane of symmetry. 

Epimers - Diastereomers that differ in configuration at only one chiral carbon. 

Anomers - Cyclic diastereomers that are formed when a ring closure occurs at an epimeric carbon. The chiral carbon of an anomer is called the anomeric carbon.