Stereochemistry
subdiscipline of chemistry about stereoisomers and the relative spatial arrangement of atoms
Stereochemistry, a subdiscipline of chemistry, studies the spatial arrangement of atoms that form the structure of molecules and their manipulation. The study of stereochemistry focuses on the relationships between stereoisomers, which are defined as having the same molecular formula and sequence of bonded atoms (constitution) but differing in the geometric positioning of the atoms in space. For this reason, it is also known as 3D chemistry—the prefix "stereo-" means "three-dimensionality" because many of the types of stereochemistry are based on 3D geometric relationships. Stereochemistry applies to all kinds of compounds and ions, organic and inorganic species alike. Stereochemistry affects biological, physical, and supramolecular chemistry.
Stereochemistry also studies the reactivity of the molecules in question (dynamic stereochemistry).
Cahn–Ingold–Prelog priority rules are part of a system for describing a molecule's stereochemistry. They rank the atoms around a stereochemical region of a molecule in a standard way, allowing unambiguous descriptions of their relative positions in the molecule.
Visual representations
Rather than using a high-quality 3D rendering a molecule, there are several simplified standard ways of representing the 3D positioning of atoms around a stereocenter. One common convention uses a bond drawn as a solid wedge to indicate that a bond that is projecting towards the viewer, a dashed or hashed bond to indicate that a bond is receding away from the viewer, and plain lines to represent bonds that are in the plane of the molecule itself.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Stereochemistry” as subdiscipline of chemistry about stereoisomers and the relative spatial arrangement of atoms. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q186011. The Library of Congress control number is sh85128002. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stereochemistry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.