How many stereoisomers are possible for CHBrClF provided that the central carbon has a square planar geometry?

1 Answer
Ernest Z.
Dec 24, 2015

There are three possible stereoisomers for a square planar #"CHBrClF"#.

Explanation:

They are

Isomers

Start with #"H"# and #"Br"# cis to each other.

Then you can put #"F"# or #"Cl"# trans to the #"H"#. This gives you two of the isomers.

For the third isomer, put #"H"# and #"Br"# trans to each other.

There are no optical isomers for square planar #"CHBrClF"#, because any planar compound has a mirror plane in the plane of the paper, dividing the top half of each atom into a mirror image of its bottom half.

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