Why did the drug thalidomide affect unborn babies? What is the chemical difference between sucrose and lactose in your food? Stereochemistry holds the answer and is essential to understand the chemistry of life.Stereochemistry often causes confusion amongst students when they first encounter it because it requires the chemist to visualise molecules in 3D, which can be difficult. In this book we deal with tricky concepts like conformation and configuration, how to represent them accurately and how to use the correct terms to describe them in both organic and inorganic chemistry. We involved students in the writing process to ensure we deal with areas that they find difficult, using clear language. With exercises designed to focus on common errors and misconceptions, real life examples, and practical hands-on exercises coupled with visualisation tips, our intention is to give you the tools to become confident in stereochemistry. Complementing mainstream organic textbooks, or self-study, this book is for anyone who has struggled with describing alkenes as E or Z, assigning R and S absolute configurations, drawing Newman projections or chair representations of cyclohexanes, axial chirality, understanding the stereochemistry of octahedral metal complexes and explaining surprising features of NMR spectra.Chemistry Student Guides are written with current students involved at every stage, guiding the books through the most challenging aspects of the topic.

Stereochemistry; Alkenes; Stereogenic Centres, Enantiomers and Diastereoisomers; Conformation of Acyclic Compounds; Conformation of cyclic compounds; Chiral Molecules without a Stereogenic Atom; Stereochemistry of inorganic molecules