(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
racemate - Britannica Concise
The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20070503191307/http://concise.britannica.com:80/ebc/article-9376354/racemate
 

Mixture of equal quantities of two enantiomers, substances whose molecular structures are mirror images of one another (see isomer).

The two enantiomers rotate polarized light through opposite angles, canceling each other out so that the racemic mixture has no optical activity. Racemization is the conversion of an optically active form of a compound into a racemic mixture; reversing this process is called resolution.

More on "racemate" from Britannica Concise:
Fischer projection - Method of representing the three-dimensional structures of molecules on a page, devised by Emil Fischer.
More on "racemate" from the 32 Volume Encyclopædia Britannica:
racemate - a mixture of equal quantities of two enantiomorphs, or substances that have dissymmetric molecular structures that are mirror images of one another. Each enantiomorph 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 ...
resolution - in chemistry, any process by which a mixture called a racemate (q.v.) is separated into its two constituent enantiomorphs. (Enantiomorphs are pairs of substances that have dissymmetric arrangements of atoms and structures that are nonsuperposable mirror images of one another.) Two important methods of resolution were employed by Louis Pasteur. The first of these, known as the method of ...
To cite this article:
  • MLA style:
    "." Encyclopędia Britannica. . Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.     <>.
  • APA style:
    . (). In Encyclopędia Britannica. Retrieved  , , from Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Search for "racemate" at Encyclopędia Britannica Online for all this plus dictionary definitions, magazine articles, and more.
Britannica Concise is a complete, 28,000 article, single-volume encyclopedia from the editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. Visit Encyclopædia Britannica Online to access the complete Encyclopædia Britannica, the Britannica Student Encyclopedia, a world atlas, interactive timelines, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, hundreds of magazine titles, daily features and much more.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Legal Notices
© 2007 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.