Do R/S and optical activity have any correlation with L/R?
Do R/S and optical activity have any correlation with L/R?
- Thread starter m25
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R/S refers to chirality.
L/D refers to optical activity.
They do not correlate R->D or L->S. A molecule must be chiral to have optical activity, and sometimes by coincidence it happens that R->D, but a molecule being R doesn't cause it to have a D light rotation. It could just as likely be R->L. You cannot predict optical activity from the chirality, it must be determined experimentally.
L/D refers to optical activity.
They do not correlate R->D or L->S. A molecule must be chiral to have optical activity, and sometimes by coincidence it happens that R->D, but a molecule being R doesn't cause it to have a D light rotation. It could just as likely be R->L. You cannot predict optical activity from the chirality, it must be determined experimentally.
