ABSTRACT
An oversimplified, but easily visualized, explanation for the lack of optical activity in meso compounds is that, as a beam of light hits a meso compound, it will first interact with one of the stereocentres and will be rotated by a certain amount. The substituents attached to stereocentres equidistant from the central atom have been highlighted in bold or italics to aid visualization. Each stereocentre in the polymers is a pseudoasymmetric centre and the polymers are meso compounds. When dealing with compounds containing two or more stereocentres, it is useful to have a nomenclature system to classify the diastereomers since, the diastereomers have different properties and, in a particular sample, each may or may not be composed of a pair of enantiomers which will have identical properties. In general, any compound containing two stereocentres with identical ligands attached to each will have a meso form and a compound may contain more than one meso form.
