Question

Racemic acid + optically active alcohol having chiral $C$ atom $\to ?$
The product will be

• A. Individual enantiomers
• B. Meso compund
• C. Diastereomeric mixture
• D. Racemic mixture

Answer 1

The correct option is C Diastereomeric mixture

A racemic mixture of acids has two enantiomers but when these two reacts with an asymmetric alcohol, the chiral centres of both acid and alcohol are undisturbed. Suppose initially we have racemic mixture of acids with $50\%$ $R$ and $50\%$ $S$ and it reacts with an enantiomeric pure alcohol with $S$ configuration. Then, the product ester formed from the acids are having $(R,S)$ and $(S,S)$ configurations. Hence, the chirality centre of alcohol remains same in both the products but another chiral centre is opposite for the two esters and they are called as diastereomers.

Hence, (c) is correct.