Correlation diagrams symmetry

Figure 7.44. Benzene- ewarbenzene valence isomerization a) orbital correlation diagram symmetry) and b) state correlation diagram, devised with the help of Table 7.5 and experimental state energies.

Seetion treats the spatial, angular momentum, and spin symmetries of the many-eleetron wavefunetions that are formed as anti symmetrized produets of atomie or moleeular orbitals. Proper eoupling of angular momenta (orbital and spin) is eovered here, and atomie and moleeular term symbols are treated. The need to inelude Configuration Interaetion to aehieve qualitatively eorreet deseriptions of eertain speeies eleetronie struetures is treated here. The role of the resultant Configuration Correlation Diagrams in the Woodward-Hoffmann theory of ehemieal reaetivity is also developed. 

Connecting the energy-ordered orbitals of reactants to those ofproducts according to symmetry elements that are preserved throughout the reaction produces an orbital correlation diagram. 

The cyclobutene-butadiene interconversion can serve as an example of the reasoning employed in construction of an orbital correlation diagram. For this reaction, the four n orbitals of butadiene are converted smoothly into the two n and two a orbitals of the ground state of cyclobutene. The analysis is done as shown in Fig. 11.3. The n orbitals of butadiene are ip2, 3, and ij/. For cyclobutene, the four orbitals are a, iz, a, and n. Each of the orbitals is classified with respect to the symmetiy elements that are maintained in the course of the transformation. The relevant symmetry features depend on the structure of the reacting system. The most common elements of symmetiy to be considered are planes of symmetiy and rotation axes. An orbital is classified as symmetric (5) if it is unchanged by reflection in a plane of symmetiy or by rotation about an axis of symmetiy. If the orbital changes sign (phase) at each lobe as a result of the symmetry operation, it is called antisymmetric (A). Proper MOs must be either symmetric or antisymmetric. If an orbital is not sufficiently symmetric to be either S or A, it must be adapted by eombination with other orbitals to meet this requirement. 

Fig. 11.4. Correlation diagram for cyclobutene and butadiene orbitals (symmetry-forbidden disrotatory reaction).

Correlation diagrams can be constructed in an analogous fashion for the disrotatory and conrotatory modes for interconversion of hexatriene and cyclohexadiene. They lead to the prediction that the disrotatory mode is an allowed process whereas the conrotatory reaction is forbidden. This is in agreement with the experimental results on this reaction. Other electrocyclizations can be analyzed by the same method. Substituted derivatives of polyenes obey the orbital symmetry rules, even in cases in which the substitution pattern does not correspond in symmetiy to the orbital system. It is the symmetry of the participating orbitals, not of the molecule as a whole, that is crucial to the analysis. 

We have now considered three viewpoints from which thermal electrocyclic processes can be analyzed symmetry characteristics of the frontier orbitals, orbital correlation diagrams, and transition-state aromaticity. All arrive at the same conclusions about stereochemistiy of electrocyclic reactions. Reactions involving 4n + 2 electrons will be disrotatory and involve a Hiickel-type transition state, whereas those involving 4n electrons will be conrotatory and the orbital array will be of the Mobius type. These general principles serve to explain and correlate many specific experimental observations made both before and after the orbital symmetry mles were formulated. We will discuss a few representative examples in the following paragraphs. 

How do orbital symmetry requirements relate to [4tc - - 2tc] and other cycloaddition reactions Let us constmct a correlation diagram for the addition of butadiene and ethylene to give cyclohexene. For concerted addition to occur, the diene must adopt an s-cis conformation. Because the electrons that are involved are the n electrons in both the diene and dienophile, it is expected that the reaction must occur via a face-to-face rather than edge-to-edge orientation. When this orientation of the reacting complex and transition state is adopted, it can be seen that a plane of symmetry perpendicular to the planes of the... 

An orbital correlation diagram can be constructed by examining the symmetry of the reactant and product orbitals with respect to this plane. The orbitals are classified by symmetry with respect to this plane in Fig. 11.9. For the reactants ethylene and butadiene, the classifications are the same as for the consideration of electrocyclic reactions on p. 610. An additional feature must be taken into account in the case of cyclohexene. The cyclohexene orbitals tr, t72. < i> and are called symmetry-adapted orbitals. We might be inclined to think of the a and a orbitals as localized between specific pairs of carbon... 

When the orbitals have been classified with respect to symmetry, they can be arranged according to energy and the correlation lines can be drawn as in Fig. 11.10. From the orbital correlation diagram, it can be concluded that the thermal concerted cycloadditon reaction between butadiene and ethylene is allowed. All bonding levels of the reactants correlate with product ground-state orbitals. Extension of orbital correlation analysis to cycloaddition reactions involving other numbers of n electrons leads to the conclusion that the suprafacial-suprafacial addition is allowed for systems with 4n + 2 n electrons but forbidden for systems with 4n 7t electrons. 

The complementary relationship between thermal and photochemical reactions can be illustrated by considering some of the same reaction types discussed in Chapter 11 and applying orbital symmetry considerations to the photochemical mode of reaction. The case of [2ti + 2ti] cycloaddition of two alkenes can serve as an example. This reaction was classified as a forbidden thermal reaction (Section 11.3) The correlation diagram for cycloaddition of two ethylene molecules (Fig. 13.2) shows that the ground-state molecules would lead to an excited state of cyclobutane and that the cycloaddition would therefore involve a prohibitive thermal activation energy. 

Fig. 13.3. Orbital correlation diagram for one ground-state ethene and one excited-state ethene. The symmetry designations apply, respectively, to the horizontal and vertical planes for two ethene molecules approaching one another in parallel planes.

Tabic 6-2. Correlation diagram of the C2/, point group of the isolated T6 molecule (left column) with the C2i, factor group for solid T(, (right column) via the site symmetry C group (center). L, M, and N indicate the principal molecular transition dipole moments, while a, b, and c arc the crystalline axes. 

We will conclude this section on theory with such a case. In Section 8.3 it was shown that the influence of substituents on the rate of dediazoniation of arenediazonium ions can be treated by dual substituent parameter (DSP) methods, and that kinetic evidence is consistent with a side-on addition of N2. We will now discuss these experimental conclusion with the help of schematic orbital correlation diagrams for the diazonium ion, the aryl cation, and the side-on ion-molecule pair (Fig. 8-5, from Zollinger, 1990). We use the same orbital classification as Vincent and Radom (1978) (C2v symmetry). 

Figure 4-6. Partial correlation diagram for the spin-quartets of d ions in octahedral symmetry.

Fig. 14. Energy level and correlation diagram of the C2H5 photodissociation system in C8 and C v symmetry. Upper limits of the adiabatic energies of the A2A (3s) and B2A (Sp) states are based on absorption spectra. The crossing of the 2B2 and 2Ai states in Civ symmetry becomes an avoided intersection in Cs. The Biu state of C2H4 is reduced to B2 in C2v when the 2 axis is chosen to be perpendicular to the C2H4 plane. (From Amaral et al.39)...

In a concerted reaction, orbital and state symmetry is conserved throughout the course of the reaction. Thus a symmetric orbital in butadiene must transform into a symmetric orbital in cyclobutene and an antisymmetric orbital must transform into an antisymmetric orbital. In drawing the correlation diagram, molecular orbitals of one symmetry on one side of the diagram are connected to orbitals of the same symmetry on the other side, while observing the noncrossing rule. 

Let us turn now to a reaction surface that has been studied in more detail, that is, the surface for the addition of methylene to ethylene (11). Figure 5 shows the various approaches of the two fragments, b) is the most symmetric approach, but the correlation diagram shows that the reaction is symmetry-forbidden for the ground configuration singlet methylene along this path. In Fig. 5 c the levels have been classified as symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to the xz plane, which is the relevant symmetry element for use of the symmetry conservation rales. 

Fig. 7. Orbital (a), configuration (b), and state (c, d) correlation diagrams for a typical ground-state symmetry-forbidden pericyclic reaction...

The most widely used qualitative model for the explanation of the shapes of molecules is the Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) model of Gillespie and Nyholm (25). The orbital correlation diagrams of Walsh (26) are also used for simple systems for which the qualitative form of the MOs may be deduced from symmetry considerations. Attempts have been made to prove that these two approaches are equivalent (27). But this is impossible since Walsh s Rules refer explicitly to (and only have meaning within) the MO model while the VSEPR method does not refer to (is not confined by) any explicitly-stated model of molecular electronic structure. Thus, any proof that the two approaches are equivalent can only prove, at best, that the two are equivalent at the MO level i.e. that Walsh s Rules are contained in the VSEPR model. Of course, the transformation to localised orbitals of an MO determinant provides a convenient picture of VSEPR rules but the VSEPR method itself depends not on the independent-particle model but on the possibility of separating the total electronic structure of a molecule into more or less autonomous electron pairs which interact as separate entities (28). The localised MO description is merely the simplest such separation the general case is our Eq. (6)... 

On the basis of the above the following correlation diagram can be constructed showing correlation between orbitals of the same symmetry having minimal differences in a disrotatoiy interconversion. The lines connecting the orbitals show similar symmetry. 

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