In basic theory, a carbon atom with four nonidentical substituents attached, makes a chiral centre. Thus any molecule is chiral as long as it has a chiral centre (except meso compounds). I thought identifying a chiral centre was straight forward until I saw the following video.
Is Carbon (with the ability to bond 4 covalent bonds) the only atom qualified as a chiral centre (stereogenic centre)? Wikipedia link states, other atoms like Nitrogen or Sulfur could also be a chiral centre.
The above video shows that other atoms too can be chiral as well... However a comment in the same video, replies that a hybridised Nitrogen atom is not qualified to be a chiral centre. Original comment : That Nitrogen is sp2 hybridized, the lone pair of electron are in a unhybridized p-orbital; it would not be considered a chiral center.
With reference to this question 1-, it has number of comments, but not quite the answer I am after. On the other hand this question 2- has more emphasis on the lone pair for chirality - an atom with lone pairs can't be a chiral centre.
So given these, why can't a hybridised atom be a chiral centre?
1.
4 non-identical substituents (including a lone pair being one).2.
Hybridisation has no impact on a chiral centre $\endgroup$ – bonCodigo Jul 17 '17 at 4:10