1.6 Designating Handedness Using Fischer Projection Formula

• • Two-dimensional structural notation for showing the spatial arrangement of groups about chiral centers in molecules
  • According to this formula, a chiral center is represented as the intersection of vertical and horizontal lines

  A) Fischer

  
• Dashed lines

  • Behind

  
• Wedged lines

  • Infront
• The D and L system are used to designate the handedness of glyceraldehyde enantiomers can be extended to other monosaccharides with more than one chiral center
• Epimers

  • Diastereomers whose molecules differ only in the configuration at one chiral center.
• Tetrahedral arrangements

  • The four groups attached to the atom at the chiral center assume a tetrahedral geometry governed by the following conventions:
  • Vertical lines from the chiral center represent bonds to groups directed into the printed page 
  • Horizontal lines from the chiral center represent bonds to groups directed out of the printed page