Diethyl tartrate
Encyclopedia
Diethyl tartrate is the ethyl ester of tartaric acid
. It is chiral
, showing both left- and right-handed forms, as well as a meso stereoisomer
.
In the Sharpless epoxidation
, diethyl tartrate and titanium isopropoxide form a chiral catalyst in situ.
Tartaric acid
Tartaric acid is a white crystalline diprotic organic acid. It occurs naturally in many plants, particularly grapes, bananas, and tamarinds; is commonly combined with baking soda to function as a leavening agent in recipes, and is one of the main acids found in wine. It is added to other foods to...
. It is chiral
Chirality (chemistry)
A chiral molecule is a type of molecule that lacks an internal plane of symmetry and thus has a non-superimposable mirror image. The feature that is most often the cause of chirality in molecules is the presence of an asymmetric carbon atom....
, showing both left- and right-handed forms, as well as a meso stereoisomer
Meso compound
A meso compound or meso isomer is a non-optically active member of a set of stereoisomers, at least two of which are optically active. This means that despite containing two or more stereocenters it is not chiral. A meso compound is superimposable on its mirror image, and it does not produce a ""...
.
In the Sharpless epoxidation
Sharpless epoxidation
The Sharpless Epoxidation reaction is an enantioselective chemical reaction to prepare 2,3-epoxyalcohols from primary and secondary allylic alcohols....
, diethyl tartrate and titanium isopropoxide form a chiral catalyst in situ.