Optical Activity Condition

Symmetry Criteria:

$$\text{Optical Activity} \iff \text{No POS} \quad \text{and} \quad \text{No COS}$$

Concept: Establishes that a coordination complex is capable of rotating plane-polarized light (and thus exists as a pair of non-superimposable mirror-image enantiomers) if and only if it is completely chiral.

Notation:

• $$\text{POS}$$ = Plane of Symmetry;
• $$\text{COS}$$ = Center of Symmetry.