Diastereotopic

In stereochemistry, topicity is the stereochemical relationship between substituents and the structure to which they are attached. Depending on the relationship, such groups can be heterotopic, homotopic, enantiotopic, or diastereotopic.

Homotopic groups in a chemical compound are equivalent groups. Two groups A and B are homotopic if the molecule remains the same (including stereochemically) when the groups are interchanged with the remaining parts of the molecule fixed. Homotopic atoms are always identical, in any environment. Homotopic NMR-active nuclei have the same chemical shift in an NMR spectrum. For example, the four hydrogen atoms of methane (CH₄) are homotopic with one another, as are the two hydrogens or the two chlorines in dichloromethane (CH₂Cl₂).

The stereochemical term enantiotopic refers to the relationship between two groups in a molecule which, if one or the other were replaced, would generate a chiral compound. The two possible compounds resulting from that replacement would be enantiomers.

For example, the two hydrogen atoms attached to the second carbon in butane are enantiotopic. Replacement of one hydrogen atom (colored blue) with a bromine atom will produce (R)-2-bromobutane. Replacement of the other hydrogen atom (colored red) with a bromine atom will produce the enantiomer (S)-2-bromobutane.

Enantiotopic groups are identical and indistinguishable except in chiral environments. For instance, the CH₂ hydrogens in ethanol (CH₃CH₂OH) are normally enantiotopic, but can be made different (diastereotopic) if combined with a chiral center, for instance by conversion to an ester of a chiral carboxylic acid such as lactic acid, or if coordinated to a chiral metal center, or if associated with an enzyme active site, since enzymes are constituted of chiral amino acids. Indeed, in the presence of the enzyme LADH, one specific hydrogen is removed from the CH₂ group during the oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde, and it gets replaced in the same place during the reverse reaction. The chiral environment needs not be optically pure for this effect.

...
Wikipedia