Aromaticity orbital

Facial selectivities of spiro[cyclopentane-l,9 -fluorene]-2-ones 30a-30e were studied by Ohwada [96, 97]. The carbonyl tz orbital can interact with the aromatic % orbital of the fluorene in a similar manner to spiro conjugation [98-102]. The ketones 30 were reduced to alcohols by the action of sodium borohydride in methanol at -43 °C. The anti-alcohol, i.e., the syn addition product of the reducing reagent with respect to the substituent, is favored in all cases, irrespective of the substituent at C-2 or C-4 of the fluorene ring (2-nitro 30b syn anti = 68 32), 4-nitro... 

Dibenzobicyclo[2.2.2]octadienones (34) bearing an aromatic substituent were designed to probe the unsynunetrization of the carbonyl it orbital arising from the aromatic % orbitals [103,104], Reduction of the carbonyl moiety of 2- (R H) and 3-substituted (R3 H) dibenzobicyclo[2.2.2]octadienones (34) was studied by using sodium borohydride in methanol at - 3 °C. The 2- (34a) and 3-nitrodibenzo-bicyclo[2.2.2]octadienones (34d)... 

In the Spiro systems 30, the aromatic orbitals unsymmetrize the carbonyl orbital. Simultaneously, the carbonyl group can perturb the orthogonal aromatic ring. Nitration of the fluorene derivatives (30) bearing a spiro substituent was studied (Fig. 17) [96, 97]. 

There is, however, an important difference between examples 27 and 41. The later compound forms a Huckel-aromatic orbital system in 41b while the former compound adopts a Mobius orbital system with 4q + 2 electrons, i.e. 27 is Mobius antiaromatic although six electrons participate in cyclic delocalization (see Section III. B). This is in line with a destabilizing resonance energy of 9.9 kcalmol"1 (Table 2) calculated with the MM2ERW method41-42. 

A DFT study of the reactivity of pyridine and the diazabenzenes towards electrophilic substitution, assuming frontier orbital control of the reactions, predicts their low reactivity as the HOMOs of these substrates are not n-orbitals.5 For pyridine-N-oxide, however, the HOMO is an aromatic orbital. DFT studies giving Fukui indices predict6 the preferred sites of electrophilic attack on pyrrole, furan, and thiophene and calculation of the local softness of the reactive sites rationalizes relative reactivities. 

All the acyl radicals have nucleophilicities between that of a primary and a secondary alkyl radical i.e, the acetyl radical is more nucleophilic than the ethyl radical, but the benzoyl radical is much less nucleophilic than the benzyl radical. The different polarizability of these last two radicals, due to their different configuration, was considered an important factor of this behavior. An incipient positive charge in a transition state similar to a charge-transfer complex (27) can be stabilized in the benzyl radical 32) by the aromatic orbitals, but not in the benzoyl radical, in which the unpaired electron occupies a hybrid orbital (33). 

The TS for [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements can be considered to be two interacting allyl fragments. When the process is suprafacial in both groups, an aromatic orbital array results and the process is thermally allowed. Usually a chairlike TS is involved but a boatlike conformation is also possible. ... 

Magnetic circular dicliroism (MCD) is independent of, and thus complementary to, the natural CD associated with chirality of nuclear stmcture or solvation. Closely related to the Zeeman effect, MCD is most often associated with orbital and spin degeneracies in cliromophores. Chemical applications are thus typically found in systems where a chromophore of high symmetry is present metal complexes, poriihyrins and other aromatics, and haem proteins are... 

HMO theory is named after its developer, Erich Huckel (1896-1980), who published his theory in 1930 [9] partly in order to explain the unusual stability of benzene and other aromatic compounds. Given that digital computers had not yet been invented and that all Hiickel s calculations had to be done by hand, HMO theory necessarily includes many approximations. The first is that only the jr-molecular orbitals of the molecule are considered. This implies that the entire molecular structure is planar (because then a plane of symmetry separates the r-orbitals, which are antisymmetric with respect to this plane, from all others). It also means that only one atomic orbital must be considered for each atom in the r-system (the p-orbital that is antisymmetric with respect to the plane of the molecule) and none at all for atoms (such as hydrogen) that are not involved in the r-system. Huckel then used the technique known as linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) to build these atomic orbitals up into molecular orbitals. This is illustrated in Figure 7-18 for ethylene. 

In their reactions with suitable nucleophiles, such as tt-aromatics or heteroatom donor nucleophiles, the readily polarizable linear acylium ions shift a Tt-electron pair to oxygen, bending the ions and developing an empty p-orbital at the carbocationic center. This enables the reaction with aromatics. The acetylation of benzene can be depicted as... 

Many semiempirical methods have been created for modeling organic compounds. These methods correctly predict many aspects of electronic structure, such as aromaticity. Furthermore, these orbital-based methods give additional information about the compounds, such as population analysis. There are also good techniques for including solvation elfects in some semiempirical calculations. Semiempirical methods are discussed further in Chapter 4. 

The electronic theory of organic chemistry, and other developments such as resonance theory, and parallel developments in molecular orbital theory relating to aromatic reactivity have been described frequently. A general discussion here would be superfluous at the appropriate point a brief summary of the ideas used in this book will be given ( 7- )-... 

The value of k was fixed at 0-5 and the n electron energy when the orbital representing the attacking reagent was positioned near to a particular position in the aromatic nucleus was computed, using values of h var3nng from — 3 to +3. 

The pattern of orbital energies is different for benzene than it would be if the six tt electrons were confined to three noninteracting double bonds The delocalization provided by cyclic conjugation in benzene causes its tt electrons to be held more strongly than they would be in the absence of cyclic conjugation Stronger binding of its tt electrons is the factor most responsible for the special stability—the aromaticity—of benzene... 

FIGURE 11 10 The lowest energy tt molecular orbital of benzyl radical shows the interaction of the 2p orbital of the benzylic carbon with the TT system of the aromatic ring... 

Cyclic conjugation although necessary for aromaticity is not sufficient for it Some other factor or factors must contribute to the special stability of benzene and compounds based on the benzene ring To understand these factors let s return to the molecular orbital description of benzene... 

One of molecular orbital theories early successes came m 1931 when Erich Huckel dis covered an interesting pattern m the tt orbital energy levels of benzene cyclobutadiene and cyclooctatetraene By limiting his analysis to monocyclic conjugated polyenes and restricting the structures to planar geometries Huckel found that whether a hydrocarbon of this type was aromatic depended on its number of tt electrons He set forth what we now call Huckel s rule... 

Use Frosts circle to construct orbital energy diagrams for (a) [lOjannulene and (b) [12]annulene Is either aromatic according to Huckel s rule ... 

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