Home > Organic Chemistry > Meso Compounds

What are meso compounds?

Answer 1

These are formally #RS# compounds....

A meso compound is a symmetric #"RS"# compound with an internal mirror plane, and FORMALLY TWO chiral centres. And this is best appreciated by a simple example .... consider ....

#"H"_3CdotCH(OH)dotCH(OH)CH"_3#

...the dotted carbon are EACH formally chiral...and this compound SHOULD give rise to FOUR diastereomers...#"RR"#, and #"SS"#, and #"RS"#, and #"SR"#.

However, #"RS"#, and #"SR"# CLEARLY have an internal mirror plane, and these are EQUIVALENT meso isomers....and if you cannot see this on paper you should make a model.

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Answer 2

Ella Allen

Meso compounds are stereoisomers with an internal plane of symmetry, resulting in optical inactivity despite having chiral centers.

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.