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What is chirality/optical isomerism?

Chirality (or optical isomerism) is a physical property of a molecule which has a non-superimposable mirror image. In other words, a molecule which, when reflected cannot be rotated in any way to make the or...
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Answered by Matthew W. • Chemistry tutor
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What is the difference between Sn1 and Sn2 reactions?

Both Sn1 and Sn2 reactions are nucleophilic substitution reactions. Sn1 reactions proceed via 2 steps. An example of this is the substitution of a halogen group such as bromine with an OH- group forming an a...
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Answered by Joseph S. • Chemistry tutor
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What is Gibbs Free Energy?

Gibbs free energy allows you to link together the two factors entropy and enthalpy, these factors together determine if a chemical reaction is spontaneous or not. For a reaction to be spontaneous then the ch...
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Answered by Helen S. • Chemistry tutor
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What are the stereochemical implications of bimolecular and unimolecular nucleophilic substitution?

If a chiral molecules undergoes nucleophilic substitution what happens to its stereochemistry? S N 1: These reactions occur with the production of a cationic intermediate. These contain an sp 2 hybrdised car...
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Answered by Henry S. • Chemistry tutor
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Why are solutions of transition metal ions often coloured

Transition metal ions have, by definition, at least one partly filled d orbital (eg:3d). When in a solution, the positive charge of the transition metal ions can cause the lone elctron pairs of other molecul...
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Answered by Stuart A. • Chemistry tutor
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