Question

Draw a stereospecific skeletal structure for the product(s) formed from the reaction of the following compounds with pyridinium hydrobromide perbromide. Are these compounds chiral? Are they optically active? Explain why or why not.

Answer 1

The structures for 5-bromo-3-iodoheptanal and 5-bromo-4-ethyl-2-heptanone are seven-carbon chains with specific substituents. Compounds that can rotate the plane of plane-polarized light due to an asymmetric carbon are chiral and optically active, measured by a polarimeter.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student has asked to draw the structure for each of the following compounds: 5-bromo-3-iodoheptanal and 5-bromo-4-ethyl-2-heptanone. For 5-bromo-3-iodoheptanal, this is a seven-carbon chain with a bromine atom at the fifth carbon, an iodine atom at the third carbon, and an aldehyde group (-CHO) at the terminal carbon. For 5-bromo-4-ethyl-2-heptanone, it's a seven-carbon chain with a bromine atom at the fifth carbon, an ethyl group attached to the fourth carbon, and a ketone functional group (C=O) on the second carbon from the other end.

The optical activity and chirality of compounds depend on the presence of an asymmetric carbon atom without a plane of symmetry. Compounds with these features can rotate the plane of plane-polarized light and are therefore said to be optically active. An instrument known as a polarimeter is used to measure this activity.