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enantiomer
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Analogy between chemical reactions of enantiomers and a hand grasping a ball. If the ball is featureless, the right and left hands (enantiomers) have exactly the same interactions with the ball. However, if the ball has the word “Label” written on it and is thus a chiral object, that labeled ball will be optically active; it will mimic a single enantiomer. The left and right hands will interact differently with the labeled ball. The little finger of the right hand will approach the capital “L” of “Label” while the thumb will approach the lowercase “l.” For the left hand, the interactions will be just the opposite: the little finger will approach the lowercase “l” and the thumb the capital “L.” The figure shows these interactions, as well as a molecular counterpart in which a pair of enantiomers, (R)- and (S)-bromochlorofluoroiodomethane, interacts with a single enantiomer, (S)-2-chlorobutane. In the R enantiomer, the bromine atom approaches the methyl group (―CH3), and the iodine atom approaches the ethyl group (―CH2CH3). In the S enantiomer, the bromine atom approaches the ethyl group, and the iodine atom approaches the methyl group.

enantiomer: References & Edit History

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Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Modified link of Web site: Chemistry LibreTexts - Enantiomers. Dec 29, 2025
Add new Web site: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Enantiomeric Natural Products: Occurrence and Biogenesis. Mar 14, 2025
Add new Web site: University of Wisconsin Pressbooks - Chemistry 109 Fall 2021 - Stereoisomers: Enantiomers. Oct 12, 2024
Add new Web site: Khan Academy - Drawing enantiomers. Mar 11, 2024
Add new Web site: Chemistry LibreTexts - Enantiomers. Oct 27, 2023
Title changed from “enantiomorph” to “enantiomer.” Article revised and updated. Nov 25, 2020
Add new Web site: Academia - Enantiomer labelling, a method for the quantitative analysis of amino acids (PDF). Mar 07, 2016
Article added to new online database. Jul 20, 1998
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