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Edexcel A-Level Chemistry A2 15.3 Optical Activity Is the Ability of a Single Optical Isomer to Rotate the Plane of Polarisation of Plane Polarised Questions

Use the presence of a chiral centre to decide whether a molecule can rotate plane-polarised light, then describe the opposite rotations of pure optical isomers.

Syllabus
First assessment 2019
Course
Chemistry YCH11
Level
A2

Exam points

  • Identify structures that can rotate plane-polarised light by locating a chiral centre.
  • Distinguish pure enantiomers by opposite clockwise or anticlockwise optical rotation.

Edexcel A-Level Chemistry A2 15.3 Optical Activity Is the Ability of a Single Optical Isomer to Rotate the Plane of Polarisation of Plane Polarised Questions question 1

[Maximum number: 1]

This question is about carbonyl compounds.

Another carbonyl compound, propanal, reacts with HCN in the presence of KCN to form a racemic mixture of two optical isomers of CH3CH2CH(OH)CN\mathrm{CH}_{3} \mathrm{CH}_{2} \mathrm{CH}(\mathrm{OH}) \mathrm{CN}.

Describe how you could distinguish between pure samples of the two optical isomers.

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