Chirality

Chirality is the property of a structure that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image. Its two mirror-related forms are called enantiomers.

Symmetry: A property of an object or system that remains unchanged under specified transformations. Chirality is defined by the absence of any symmetry operation that superimposes a structure on its mirror image.
Enantiomer: One of two stereoisomers that are nonsuperimposable mirror images of each other. Enantiomers are the paired forms produced by molecular chirality.
Chiral drugs: Pharmaceutical compounds whose molecules exist in nonsuperimposable mirror-image forms. Different drug enantiomers can have different biological effects and safety profiles.
Chiral symmetry: A symmetry relating left- and right-handed components of a physical theory or system. The term shares a name with geometric chirality but describes symmetry between handed components.
Reflection: A transformation that reverses orientation across a line, plane, or higher-dimensional hyperplane. Reflection creates the mirror image used to test whether a structure is chiral.
Diastereomer: A stereoisomer that is not the mirror image of another stereoisomer. Unlike enantiomers, diastereomers can differ in many physical properties.
Asymmetric synthesis: A chemical synthesis designed to produce one enantiomer or diastereomer preferentially. It uses chiral catalysts or reagents to control the configuration of products.
Parity (physics): The symmetry operation that reverses spatial coordinates, as in a mirror reflection. Parity violation shows that nature's fundamental interactions can distinguish left from right.
Stereoisomerism: Isomerism in which molecules have the same atom connectivity but differ in the spatial arrangement of their atoms. Chirality is one source of stereoisomerism in molecules.
Cahn–Ingold–Prelog priority rules: Rules for ranking substituents around a stereogenic unit to assign its absolute configuration. These rules label chiral centers as R or S.

Linked from 56 pages