Carbonyl oxides frontier orbitals

RhCl(PPh8)a] catalyses similar cyclizations of 4,4-disubstituted 1,6-dienes to methylene cyclopentanes. The stereochemistry of iron-carbonyl-promoted ring-openings may be predicted by Frontier Molecular Orbital Theory.A mechanism involving initial oxidative-addition to give an acylrhodium(iii) hydride intermediate has been proposed to explain the Rh f-catalysed cyclization reaction (13) - alkyl substituents in either the 2 or 5 positions substantially... 

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