If a mixture has an ee of 70%, what is the percentage of each enantiomer?

⚑ Flag

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

If you have a mixture with 70% enantiomeric excess, that means that the difference between the enantiomerically pure material and the other enatiomeric material is 70%. The percentages must add up to 100%. For two enantiomers, if you have 70% excess of one enantiomer that means you have 30% of a 50-50 mix. Half of 30% is 15%. You have 70+15% - 85% of the major enantiomer and 15% of the minor.  85%-15% = 70% or the excess of 85% as compared to 15%.