Question

 

Indicate whether the following substance is optically active or not.

• optically active
• optically inactive
• cannot be determined

Answer 1

Concepts and reason

This problem is based on the optical activity of organic molecules.

Chiral molecule is a molecule which possesses an asymmetric carbon (chiral carbon). An asymmetric carbon is the carbon which is connected to the four completely different substituents. Moreover, a chiral molecule does not contain the plane of symmetry. This molecule is optically active.

Fundamentals

An asymmetric carbon is the carbon attached to the four completely different groups of atoms. A plane of symmetry is an imaginary plane which bisects the compound into two equal halves. It can be vertical as well as horizontal. Absence of plane of symmetry indicates the optical activity in a an organic compound.

The structure of the compound is given below:

Representation of plane of symmetry in the first compound is shown below.

Ans:

The compound is,