Question

What is an achiral carbon atom?

Answer 1

Achiral carbon atom

• The carbon atom which is attached to the same substituents and lacks any chiral centre is called an achiral carbon atom.
• Achiral compounds are optically inactive in nature as they do not rotate the plane-polarized light.

Example

• Dichloromethane, the carbon atom is an achiral atom as two chlorine atoms and two hydrogen atoms are attached to the central carbon atom.