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Organic Chemistry

Structures and Nomenclature

What are isomers?

Isomers are chemical compounds with the same molecular formula, but which are different in some way. The major types are constitutional isomers, stereoisomers, and enantiomers (the last one is actually a subset of the second-to-last one, but we’ll get there in a minute).

Constitutional, or structural, isomers have the same number of atoms, but they are arranged in a different order. For example, four carbon atoms and ten hydrogen atoms can be arranged in two different ways.

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