Hi, can any 1 explain what is chirality in molecules and how do we find the chiral centre from a given compound, for example in citronellol(C10H20O or C10H19OH).

 

easy explainations will be most appreciated?

Chirality is essentially when two molecules are mirror images of each other. They are non-superimposable.

 

Using carbon as an example, a molecule such as CH4 cannot be chiral, as you can rotate it any which way, and it will still be superimposable. However, a molecule of (say) CFBrCl and its mirror image will be non-superimposable, causing it to be chiral.

 

In the citronellol case, essentially, you are looking for a carbon molecule that has 4 different substituent groups. If you take the entire citronellol molecule and mirror it, you will have the other enantiomer.

Think of it as your hands. They are very similar, but they are non-overlappable. The two hands are mutual mirror images.

 

Indeed, each C-atom with 4 different groups attached to it is a chiral center. In more complicated molecules, it may be quite hard to find all of them, usually they contain multiple chiral centers.