racemian

Racemian is a term used in chemistry to describe a racemic mixture. A racemic mixture is a solution containing equal amounts of the two enantiomers of a chiral molecule. Enantiomers are stereoisomers that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other. They have identical physical properties, such as melting point and boiling point, but can differ in their interaction with other chiral molecules and their biological activity.

The formation of a racemic mixture often occurs during chemical synthesis when a chiral center is created. If the reaction does not favor the formation of one enantiomer over the other, both enantiomers are produced in equal proportions, resulting in a racemic mixture. This is common in reactions where a planar precursor is attacked by a reagent from either face with equal probability.

Racemic mixtures are typically optically inactive because the rotation of plane-polarized light by one enantiomer is exactly canceled out by the opposite rotation of the other enantiomer. Separating enantiomers from a racemic mixture, a process known as chiral resolution, can be challenging but is often necessary for pharmaceutical applications, as different enantiomers can have vastly different effects in the body. For example, one enantiomer might be a therapeutic drug, while the other could be inactive or even harmful.