Enantiomer

In <a href="/facts/Chemistry/SrNqkGVm">chemistry</a>, an enantiomer , also known as an optical isomer, antipode, or optical antipode, is one of a pair of molecular entities which are mirror images of each other and non-superimposable. 
Enantiomer molecules are like right and left hands: one cannot be superposed onto the other without first being converted to its mirror image. It is solely a relationship of <a href="/facts/Chirality_(chemistry)/p5a9pftB">chirality</a> and the permanent three-dimensional relationships among molecules or other chemical structures: no amount of re-orientation of a molecule as a whole or <a href="/facts/Conformational_isomerism/JflrT5Ws">conformational</a> change converts one chemical into its enantiomer. Chemical structures with chirality rotate plane-polarized light. A mixture of equal amounts of each enantiomer, a <a href="/facts/Racemic_mixture/STEagtrD">racemic mixture</a> or a racemate, does not rotate light.
Stereoisomers include both enantiomers and <a href="/facts/Diastereomer/ReBkFoCP">diastereomers</a>. Diastereomers, like enantiomers, share the same molecular formula and are also non-superimposable onto each other; however, they are not mirror images of each other.

Enantiomer open-in-new

Enantiomer