The hydrolysis of optically active 2-bromobutane leads to the formation of (±)-butan-2-ol, illustrating racemisation with a mixture of products having the same and opposite configurations.

In SN₁ reactions of optically active alkyl halides, racemisation occurs due to the planar (achiral) nature of the sp² hybridized carbocation intermediate. The nucleophile can attack from either side of the plane, resulting in a mixture of products with the ...

In SN₂ reactions of optically active alkyl halides, the product exhibits inverted configuration compared to the reactant, as the nucleophile attaches itself on the side opposite to the halogen atom.

A racemic mixture is represented by prefixing dl or (±) before the name, such as (±) butan-2-ol. It signifies a mixture containing equal proportions of enantiomers, resulting in zero optical rotation due to cancellation of rotations from each isomer.

Stereoisomers that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other are called enantiomers, which possess identical physical properties but differ in the rotation of plane-polarized light.