Join thousands of students who trust us to help them ace their exams!Watch the first video
Multiple Choice
For a atom to be considered chiral, how many different substituents must it have attached?
A
B
C
D
Verified step by step guidance
1
Understand the definition of a chiral carbon atom: a carbon atom that is attached to four different substituents, making it a stereocenter.
Recall that chirality arises when a carbon has four distinct groups attached, leading to non-superimposable mirror images (enantiomers).
Recognize that if a carbon has fewer than four different substituents, it will have a plane of symmetry or be superimposable on its mirror image, thus not chiral.
Therefore, the minimum number of different substituents attached to a carbon atom for it to be chiral is four.
Summarize that a chiral carbon must have exactly four different substituents attached to it.