7.6: Creating Chiral Centers

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You may be wondering how we create chiral centers. So far, we have only come across one reaction, the electrophilic addition, which we’ve said will lead to a racemic mixture of enantiomers. This is because the transition state of the stereochemistry-determining step is the same in energy for formation of both enantiomers. In other words, \(Δ\)G^≠1= \(Δ\)G^≠2, so \(Δ\)\(Δ\)G^≠ = 0. Enantiomeric transition states are mirror images of one another and equal in energy. In the starting material, we say that each face of the double bond is enantiotopic.

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But, what if we changed our system so that the transition state energies were not equal? Well, the only way to do that is to make the transition state diastereomeric instead of enantiomeric. Then and only then will attack of one face be preferred over the other. In this case, \(Δ\)G^≠3> \(Δ\)G^≠4, so one pathway (4) is easier to overcome than the other.

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You are not familiar with any reactions in which this can occur, but consider the following variations on the electrophilic addition reaction. Would these examples have enantiomeric or diastereomeric transition states? Are the products enantiomers or diastereomers? By changing either the starting material or reagent to become chiral itself, we can create non-racemic stereocenters.

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