Question:medium

Define -- Enantiomers

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Think of your left and right hands. They are mirror images but cannot be perfectly superimposed on each other. This is the essence of chirality and enantiomerism.
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Solution and Explanation

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Enantiomers occur in molecules that possess "chirality," meaning they lack an internal plane of symmetry.
Step 3: Detailed Explanation:
Enantiomers have identical physical properties like melting point, boiling point, and solubility.
They differ only in the direction in which they rotate plane-polarized light (one is dextrorotatory, the other is levorotatory).
They also react differently with other chiral reagents.
Example: d-Lactic acid and l-Lactic acid are enantiomers.
Step 4: Final Answer: Enantiomers are a pair of stereoisomers that are related to each other as an object and its non-superimposable mirror image.
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