There are two easy ways to draw a pair of enantiomers. Here we are using butan-2-ol as an example. You can use either of the methods below to help you draw enantiomers in exams.
Draw the same skeleton each time, but with two substituents at the chiral carbon ‘reversed’ so that in one isomer the –OH points towards the viewer in front of the ‘plane of the paper’ (shown by a solid wedge), and in the other one it points away behind the ‘plane of the paper’ (indicated by a dashed wedge). Note that although we do not normally show hydrogen atoms on skeletal structures, we include them where it is important to emphasise the stereochemistry:
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe