1874: Stereochemistry is born

Abstract

One hundred and fifty years ago, two young chemists, van't Hoff and Le Bel, related the phenomenon of optical activity to the structural characteristics that molecules had to satisfy for said phenomenon to occur, giving rise to the branch of chemistry we know as stereochemistry. The hypotheses put forward by the two researchers were different but, as presented in this work, one did not exclude the other; on the contrary, it can be said that the two points of view complemented each other.