Optical Isomerism

• Optical isomerism is a form of stereoisomerism and occurs as a result of chirality in molecules
• enantiomers rotate plane polarised light in opposite directions
• chiral molecule is a molecule that is non superimposable on its mirror image
• chiral molecules are optically active
• A mixture of equal amounts of enantiomers is called a racemic mixture
• racemic mixtures are optically inactive as each enantiomer rotates plane polarised light the same amount in opposite directions so it cancels out