What is the difference between enantiomers and chiral molecules?

2 Answers
Mar 7, 2018

No difference

Explanation:

Chiral molecules are molecules that, having 1 or more asimmetric tetraedric centers, exist as 2 or more enantiomers

Mar 7, 2018

Enantiomers are a subset of chiral molecules.

Explanation:

Enantiomers

Enantiomers are chiral molecules that are nonsuperimposable mirror images of each other.

For example, D-glucose and L-glucose are enantiomers.

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Chiral molecules

A chiral molecule is a molecule that is not superimposable on its mirror image.

For example, here are two chiral molecules.

Chiral

They are chiral, but they are not enantiomers.

There are thousands of chiral compounds, but only those that are nonsuperimposable mirror images of each other are enantiomers.