Chiral carbon
From The School of Biomedical Sciences Wiki
(Difference between revisions)
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| − | A chiral [[Carbon|carbon]] is a carbon [[Atom|atom]] which has 4 different groups attached. For each chiral carbon in a molecule there are 2 optical | + | A chiral [[Carbon|carbon]] is a carbon [[Atom|atom]] which has 4 different groups attached. For each chiral carbon in a molecule there are 2 optical [[Isomer|isomer]]s. This increases exponentially with more chiral carbons, so a molecule with 2 chiral centers would have 4 optical isomers, and a molecule with 3 would have 8 optical isomers. This can be calcultated by 2<sup>n</sup> where n is the number of chiral carbons. In nature often only one optical isomer is produced, for example only L isomer amino acids are produced in translation. The difference between L isomers and D isomers is the direction that they rotate plane polarised light. L isomers rotate light anti-clockwise and D isomers rotate clockwise. |
Revision as of 22:26, 3 December 2015
A chiral carbon is a carbon atom which has 4 different groups attached. For each chiral carbon in a molecule there are 2 optical isomers. This increases exponentially with more chiral carbons, so a molecule with 2 chiral centers would have 4 optical isomers, and a molecule with 3 would have 8 optical isomers. This can be calcultated by 2n where n is the number of chiral carbons. In nature often only one optical isomer is produced, for example only L isomer amino acids are produced in translation. The difference between L isomers and D isomers is the direction that they rotate plane polarised light. L isomers rotate light anti-clockwise and D isomers rotate clockwise.
