Asymmetric Synthesis: How Enantioselectivity Is Actually Achieved
Stereochemistry · Entrance Exams Asymmetric Synthesis: How Enantioselectivity Is Actually Achieved Two enantiomers have identical energies, so no achiral reagent can ever prefer one. Every method in this area is a way of breaking that symmetry. BSc & MSc · Organic Chemistry · Concept The short answer: Enantiomeric products come from enantiomeric transition states, which have identical energies, so an achiral system must give a racemate. Introducing something chiral makes the two competing transition states diastereomeric instead, and diastereomers differ in energy. Whether the chirality comes from an auxiliary, a reagent or a catalyst, that is the single mechanism behind…