Following are several stereorepresentations for lactic acid. Use (a) as a reference

Key concepts

Chiral center

An atom (usually carbon) which is bonded to four different atoms or groups is known as chiral center.

R and S configuration can be assign to the compound by using the following CIP (Cahn-Ingold-Prelog) sequence rules:

Rule 1: Select the chiral center in the compound and assign priorities to the atoms based on its atomic number. The atom which has the highest atomic number gets the first priority and the atom which has the least atomic number (usually hydrogen) fourth priority.

Rule 2: If the isotopes of the same atom are attached to the chiral center, then the atom with the higher atomic mass receives higher priority.

Rule 3: If the first atom of each substituent is the same then give priority to the second atom in each substituent. This process continues to the third and fourth until the rule difference is reached.

Rule 4: If the substituents have multiple bonds, the multiple bonded atoms are considered as the same number of single bonded atoms.

Step 1 of 6

Here with reference to this molecule we need to identify whether the given molecules are identical or mirror image of the molecule