Stereocenter
<p>A <b>stereocenter</b> or <b>stereogenic center</b> is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom" title="Atom">atom</a> bearing groups such that an interchanging of any two groups leads to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoisomer" title="Stereoisomer" class="mw-redirect">stereoisomer</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-solomons_1-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereocenter#cite_note-solomons-1">[1]</a></sup>
The most common stereocenters are chiral centers (such as asymmetric
carbon atoms) and the double-bonded carbon atoms in cis-trans alkenes.
A chiral center consists of an atom holding a set of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligand" title="Ligand">ligands</a>
(atoms or groups of atoms) in a spatial arrangement which is not
superposable on its mirror image. A chiral center is a generalized
extension of an <i>asymmetric carbon atom</i>, which is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon" title="Carbon">carbon</a> atom bonded to four different entities, such that an interchanging of any two groups gives rise to an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiomer" title="Enantiomer">enantiomer</a>. <sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereocenter#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_chemistry" title="Organic chemistry">organic chemistry</a> a chiral center usually refers to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon" title="Carbon">carbon</a>, nitrogen, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorus" title="Phosphorus">phosphorus</a>, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur" title="Sulfur">sulfur</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom" title="Atom">atom</a>, though it is also possible for other atoms to be chiral centers in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_chemistry" title="Organic chemistry">organic</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inorganic_chemistry" title="Inorganic chemistry">inorganic chemistry</a>.</p>
The term stereocenter was introduced in 1984 by Mislow and Siegel