Optical Antipodes

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Optical Antipodes

stereoisomers with identical chemical and physical properties except for direction (sign) of rotation of the light polarization plane. Structurally, molecules of optical antipodes are related to each other as an object is to its mirror image. An antipode rotating the polarization plane to the right is called dextrorotatory [(+)-antipode], and an antipode turning the polarization plane to the left is called levorotatory [(-)-antipode]. An example of an optical antipode is glyceraldehyde.

Optical antipodes frequently occur in natural substances.

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References in periodicals archive ?

This leads to two optical antipodes, which can exist in different cisoid and transoid states defined by the dihedral (torsional) angle between the two naphthol moieties (10, 11).

Novel atropisomeric binaphthol containing comb-shaped copolymers forming chiral nematic phases