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Which of the following is not true about enantiomers?

1) They have the same physical properties
2) They have the same chemical properties
3) They have the same boiling points
4) They have the same melting points

1 Answer

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Final answer:

The statement about enantiomers that is not true is that they have the same chemical properties; they differ when interacting with chiral substances, affecting their chemical reactivity.

Step-by-step explanation:

To address the student's question regarding enantiomers, it's important to understand isomers and their properties. Among the options given, the statement that is not true about enantiomers is that they have the same chemical properties. Enantiomers are a type of stereoisomer and are non-superimposable mirror images of each other. They do generally share the same physical properties, such as melting points and boiling points, because they have the same molecular size and shape. However, enantiomers do differ in one critical aspect of their physical properties: their ability to rotate plane-polarized light in opposite directions, which is referred to as optical activity. The key difference between enantiomers lies in their interaction with chiral substances, including chiral reagents and biomolecules, leading to different chemical properties when involved in chiral environments or reactions.

It's worth noting that the misleading option in the student's question likely arose from the fact that enantiomers can indeed exhibit different chemical reactivity in the presence of other chiral molecules, which is a crucial consideration in fields like pharmaceuticals where the different enantiomers of a drug can have drastically different effects.

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