Here are the essential concepts you must grasp in order to answer the question correctly.
Optical Activity
Optical activity refers to the ability of a compound to rotate the plane of polarized light. This property is typically exhibited by chiral molecules, which lack an internal plane of symmetry and have non-superimposable mirror images. Compounds that are achiral, or have a plane of symmetry, do not exhibit optical activity.
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Mutorotation and Optical Activity
Chirality
Chirality is a geometric property of some molecules that makes them non-superimposable on their mirror images. A chiral molecule usually has at least one carbon atom bonded to four different substituents, creating two enantiomers. In contrast, if a molecule has symmetry or identical substituents, it is achiral and cannot rotate polarized light.
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Reaction Mechanism of 1,3-Butadiene and Trans-1,2-Dichloroethene
The reaction between 1,3-butadiene and trans-1,2-dichloroethene involves a Diels-Alder cycloaddition mechanism, which can lead to the formation of a cyclic compound. The symmetry of the reactants and the resulting product can lead to the formation of a compound that possesses a plane of symmetry, thus rendering it achiral and optically inactive.
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