Molecular Shape and Mirror-Image Isomers
The shape of a molecule and its mirror image
1:00 · 720p · With AI narration and captions. This sample was made with the same system as this service.
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Mirror-Image Isomers
Molecules can have a relationship like right and left hands. Let's look at how mirror-image isomers work.
Tetrahedral Carbon
A carbon atom stretches its 4 bonds toward the corners of a regular tetrahedron, joining 4 atoms or groups of atoms.
In a Mirror
Let's reflect a carbon with 4 different groups in a mirror. The reflected molecule looks just like the original.
They Never Match Up
But no matter how you rotate them, the two never line up exactly. Molecules like these are called mirror-image isomers.
Right and Left Hands
Your right and left hands are also mirror images of each other, but you can't lay one exactly on top of the other.
Life Can Tell Them Apart
Their properties are nearly identical, but living things can tell the two shapes apart. In carvone, for example, one form smells like spearmint, and the other like caraway.
Right- and Left-Handed Molecules
Even a slight difference in shape between mirror-image isomers can change how something smells or how a drug works.
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