How many optical isomers does glucose have?

1 Answer
Ernest Z.
Dec 24, 2016

There are 16 optical isomers of glucose.

Explanation:

The structure of glucose is

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We see that carbon atoms 2, 3, 4, and 5 are chiral centres.

The maximum number of optical isomers is #2^n#, where #n# is the number of chiral centres.

In glucose, #n = 4#, so #2^4# = 16 possible isomers.

Here are their structures.

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The names of the above aldohexoses are:

#"D-allose | D-altrose | D-glucose | D-mannose"#
#"D-gulose | D-idose | D-galactose | D-talose"#
#"L-allose | L-altrose | L-glucose | L-mannose"#
#"L-gulose | L-idose | L-galactose | L-talose"#

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