Stereospecificity

In chemistry, stereospecificity is the property of a chemical reaction that yields different stereoisomeric reaction products from two stereoisomeric reactants depending on the reaction conditions.

For example, the addition of dibromocarbene to cis-2-butene yields cis-2,3-dimethyl-1,1-dibromocyclopropane whereas addition of dibromocarbene to the trans isomer exclusively yields the trans cyclopropane.



Chiral synthesis is built on stereospecific reactions where also the optical activity of a chemical compound is preserved.

Another example is disrotatory ring closing reaction trans-cis-trans-2,4,6-octatriene to cis-dimethylcyclohexadiene.