Tartaric Acid - Stereochemistry

Stereochemistry

Naturally occurring tartaric acid is chiral, meaning it has molecules that are not superimposable on their mirror images. It is a useful raw material in organic chemistry for the synthesis of other chiral molecules. The naturally occurring form of the acid is L-(+)-tartaric acid or dextrotartaric acid. The mirror-image (enantiomeric) form, levotartaric acid or D-(−)-tartaric acid, and the achiral form, mesotartaric acid, can be made artificially. The dextro and levo prefixes are not related to the D/L configuration (which is derived rather indirectly from their structural relation to - or -glyceraldehyde), but to the orientation of the optical rotation, (+) = dextrorotatory, (−) = levorotatory. Sometimes, instead of capital letters, small italic d and l are used. They are abbreviations of dextro- and levo- and, nowadays, should not be used. Levotartaric and dextrotartaric acid are enantiomers, mesotartaric acid is a diastereomer of both of them.

A rarely occurring, optically inactive form of tartaric acid, -tartaric acid is a 1:1 mixture of the levo and dextro forms. It is distinct from mesotartaric acid and was called racemic acid (from Latin racemus – "a bunch of grapes"). The word racemic later changed its meaning, becoming a general term for 1:1 enantiomeric mixtures – racemates.

Tartaric acid is used to prevent copper(II) ions from reacting with the hydroxide ions present in the preparation of copper(I) oxide. Copper(I) oxide is a reddish-brown solid, and is produced by the reduction of a Cu(II) salt with an aldehyde, in an alkaline solution.