racemic mixture

racemic mixture, a mixture of equal quantities of two enantiomers, or substances that have dissymmetric molecular structures that are mirror images of one another. Each enantiomer rotates the plane of polarization of plane-polarized light through a characteristic angle, but, because the rotatory effect of each component exactly cancels that of the other, the racemic mixture is optically inactive. The name is derived from racemic acid, the first example of such a substance to be carefully studied. Racemic acid, or, more properly, racemic tartaric acid, is a mixture of equal amounts of dextrorotatory and levorotatory tartaric acids; it is customarily designated D- or L-, or (+)- or (–)-, respectively, tartaric acid.

The process by which an optically active substance is transformed into the corresponding racemic modification is known as racemization; the converse process, by which a racemic modification is separated into the two enantiomers, is known as resolution. The ease with which an optically active compound can be racemized varies within wide limits. For example, racemization of an optically active paraffin hydrocarbon is extremely difficult, but that of lactic acid is easily accomplished. In all instances, however, it is presumed to occur as a result of a reversible transformation of the dissymmetric, optically active substance into an unstable, symmetric one incapable of optical activity; the reverse transformation back from this inactive intermediate is as likely to give one active enantiomer as the other, so that an inactive mixture results.