How do you distinguish between optical isomers?
1 Answer
Apr 28, 2016
By their rotation of plane-polarized light.
Explanation:
Given both isomers in a reasonably pure form, they should have equal but opposite rotation of plane-polarized light. Lanthanide shift reagents can interact with the isomers to form diastereomers, which should have different absorptions in an NMR experiment. There are other experiments, but they are highly specialized.
