Racemic mixture

A racemic mixture is a type of mixture that contains equal amounts of two enantiomers, which are molecules that are mirror images of each other but cannot be superimposed. Enantiomers have the same chemical formula and, in many cases, the same physical properties, but they can exhibit different biological activities. Since racemic mixtures contain both enantiomers in equal proportions, their optical activity is canceled out—the mixture does not rotate plane-polarized light.