Question

How many stereogenic centres does it contain?

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4

Answer 1

Hint: Carbon as a compound is tetravalent and can attach up to four different substituents with itself. The arrangement of these groups in space is what decides the properties which the compound will show. The bond strength of the bond depends on the type of bond that is present between the two atoms. If the bond is strong and hard to alter then the variations in the compound will be minimized.

Complete step by step answer:
The stereocenter is an occurrence of the stereogenic element that is geometrically a point. A stereocenter or a stereogenic center is a point in the compound, though not necessarily an atom, bearing different substituents, such that interchanging any two substituents lead to a stereoisomer.
A chiral center is an atom that has four different groups attached. Since the carbon is a tetravalent atom so it can accommodate up to four different groups to get attached to itself at a time. If all the four attached groups are different then the carbon atom can be called a chiral carbon. While a stereogenic center is any atom for which exchanging two groups creates a whole new isomer specifically a stereoisomer.
So we can say that all the chiral centers are stereocenters however the vice-versa is not always true.
In the compound, we can identify that there are 4 such points where the environment is different and any change of the substituent can result in different stereoisomers.
So the correct answer is D.

Note: Carbon is a tetravalent atom which means it has four valence electrons and thus can form four covalent bonds with atoms.
Based on this property the carbon atom can be categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary.