the.com/diastereomer
Stereoisomers that are not mirror images, so chemistry actually lets them have different personalities.
means A molecule that shares the same atomic connections and formula as another but isn't its mirror image, so unlike enantiomers it can have its own melting point, solubility, and reactivity.
from Built from Greek parts: 'dia-' (across, through, apart) plus 'stereo-' (solid, three-dimensional, the same root behind 'stereoisomer') plus '-mer' (a part or share, as in 'isomer'). Chemists assembled it in the stereochemistry boom of the late 1800s/early 1900s to label the stereoisomer category left over once mirror-image pairs (enantiomers) were accounted for — the 'apart' prefix marking that these forms stand across from each other in shape, not reflected in a mirror.
- vs enantiomers
- different physical properties, not just handedness
- melting points
- can differ wildly between the two isomers
- multiple centers
- need two or more stereocenters to exist
- separation
- unlike enantiomers, separable by ordinary distillation