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A Brief Guide to Types of Isomerism in Organic Chemistry

17-Jun-2016

© Compound Interest

A Brief Guide to Isomerism in Organic Chemistry

In organic chemistry, isomers are molecules with the same molecular formula (i.e. the same number of atoms of each element), but different structural or spatial arrangements of the atoms within the molecule. The reason there are such a colossal number of organic compounds – more than 10 million – is in part down to isomerism. This graphic looks at the 5 main types of isomerism in organic molecules, with a more detailed explanation of each given below, as well as the reason why isomerism is important in our day-to-day lives.

Topics
  • optical isomers
  • constitutional isomers
  • stereoisomers
  • configurational isomers
  • conformational isomers
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