Hey guys, long time no see. Good to see that jon and dream0n are still around, btw jon, if you see a strange number calling it's me(reDEEMed). I wanted to ask you guys how in the hell chemists make one isomer or the other in compounds which tend to be racemic. I have recently started dabbling again and this time I am more interesting in experimentation than anything else. I'm doing now what I should have done before, which is take measurements every step of the way and running the reactions multiple times changing certain parameters and noting the changes. I made an oxime last night, but way different than I usually do. Normally I would go by eye until I see my aldehyde take on a certain characteristic look that tells me it's changing. This time, I checked the pH of my hydroxylamine solution after each addition of base until it reached neutral. I also dripped the alcoholic aldehyde solution into the hydroxylamine solution very slowly. What I ended up with a fine white sandy material, not the yellow blobs I normally get. This got me wondering how what I have is different than before and also about stereo specificity.

Anyone got any wisdom to share around this topic? I would have posted elsewhere, but I don't have any relevant literature. I've been reading a lot, but none seems relevant enough to post.