Chemical patterns of low symmetry

Fig. 10.20. Theoretical spectral patterns for NMR of solid powders. The top trace shows the example of high symmetry, or cubic site symmetry. In this case, all three chemical shift tensor components are equal in value, a, and the tensor is best represented by a sphere. This gives rise to a single, narrow peak. In the middle trace, two of the three components are equal, so the tensor is said to have axial site symmetry. This tensor is best represented by an ellipsoid and gives rise to the assymetric lineshape shown. If all three chemical shift components are of different values, then the tensor is said to have low-site symmetry. This gives rise to the broad pattern shown in the bottom trace.

This reactivity pattern is certainly unexpected. Why should low-valent complexes react as electrophiles and highly oxidized complexes be nucleophilic Numerous calculations on model compounds have provided possible explanations for the observed chemical behavior of both Fischer-type [3-8] and Schrock-type [9-17] carbene complexes. In simplified terms, a rationalization of the reactivity of carbene complexes could be as follows. The reactivity of non-heteroatom-stabilized carbene complexes is mainly frontier-orbital-controlled. The energies of the HOMO and LUMO of carbene complexes, which are critical for the reactivity of a given complex, are determined by the amount of orbital overlap and by the energy-difference between the empty carbene 2p orbital and a d orbital (of suitable symmetry) of the group L M. 

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