Abstract
IT has always been stated that, apart from the sign of the rotation and the solubility of their salts with optically active bases or acids, the physical properties of dextro and hevo enantiomers are identical. In an investigation (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1111; 1929) of certain physical properties of the liquid active and racemic esters of tartaric acid, it appeared that in the case of this series there is a great difference in the degree of association of the active and inactive forms. It is usual to attribute association to something of the nature of the ‘a’ factor of the van der Waals' equation, that is, to stray fields, free energy, etc., in the immediate neighbourhood of the molecule, and, when this action takes place between molecules of the same kind, it is thought to be physical rather than chemical in its nature. If, now, we suppose combination to have taken place between the dextro and lævo forms, energy will have been evolved, and the stray field reduced, with consequent decrease of the degree of association. This is the observed fact; the inactive form is less associated than the active.
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CAMPBELL, A. The Physical Identity of Enantiomers. Nature 124, 792 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124792b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124792b0
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