ABSTRACT
This chapter will introduce the concepts of asymmetry and chirality as they apply to stereoisomers. Enantiomers are nonsuperimposable mirror images that are different compounds, identifiable only by differences in the physical property known as specific rotation. Enantiomers arise when a molecule has one or more atoms (including carbon) with different substituents (from different substituents for carbon). Such atoms are known as stereogenic (chiral) atoms (most of the examples in this book will deal with a stereogenic carbon atom). With more than one stereogenic center, another type of stereoisomer results known as a diastereomer. All of these are types are stereoisomers, and a nomenclature system is in place to correlate the structure with what is known as absolute configuration.
