Question

What Are the Necessary Conditions for Optical Activity? Give an Example of Optically Active Compounds.

Answer 1

Optical activity:

• “Optical activity is the property of optically active compounds to rotate the plane of plane-polarized light.”

Conditions for Optical activity:

• There must be an asymmetric carbon atom present in a compound.
• There should not be an element of symmetry in the molecule.
• The molecule should possess a chiral axis and chiral plane.

Example of optically active compounds is:

• Glyceraldehyde $\left({\mathrm{C}}_3{\mathrm{H}}_6{\mathrm{O}}_3\right)$