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Why is butanone achiral?

Answer 1

Because it has no stereogenic carbon centres.

Butanone, #H_3C-CH_2C(=O)CH_3#, has no chiral centres, and its mirror image is superposable on the original. A chiral carbon has 4 different substituents; this is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for chirality.

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Answer 2

Ava Andrews

Butanone is achiral because it lacks a chiral center. In other words, it does not have any carbon atoms bonded to four different substituents. The carbonyl carbon atom in butanone is bonded to two hydrogen atoms, one methyl group, and one ethyl group, making it achiral. Therefore, butanone does not exhibit optical isomerism and is considered achiral.

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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.