Orbital symmetry correlation

The Woodward-Hoffmann method [52], which assumes conservation of orbital symmetry, is another variant of the same idea. In it, the emphasis is put on the symmetries of molecular orbitals. Longuet-Higgins and Abramson [53] noted the necessity of state-to-state correlation, rather than the orbital correlation, which is not rigorously justified (see also, [30,44]). However, the orbital symmetry conservation rules appear to be very useful for most themial reactions. 

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... 

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. 

Besides the selection rules, which are based on the conservation of orbital symmetry, for sigmatropic rearrangements of order [ij] it is possible to demonstrate that the following correlations will always apply ... 

Figure 4. Orbital symmetry correlation diagram for R2PS2N3 and 1,3-...

Figure 5. Orbital symmetry correlation diagram for the planar (left) and folded (right) models of E(NSN)2E, where tt = as-(Reproduced from Inorg. Chem. 1982, 21, 982.)...

Theoretical analyses of the reaction path of photocyclization point to the same conclusion. Thus the qualitative state correlation procedure clearly indicates that photocyclization takes place by a conrotatory process in the Orbital Symmetry Conservation sense requiring a C2 molecular symmetry in 7 and in its symmetric congeners. The same conclusion were reached in the subsequent numerical analysis of the photocyclization of 7 and of 44 The detailed molecular structures of these two molecules and of 61 have been calculated by semi-empirical energy minimization procedures (cf also Ref. ). 

The application of correlation diagrams to photochemical processes goes back to the early work of Laidler and Shuler (1951). More recently, Longuet-Higgins and Abrahamson (1965) showed how orbital-symmetry correlations may be converted into state-symmetry correlations. Here the fundamental consideration is that states of the same symmetry do not cross, i.e. the result is an avoided crossing, while states of different symmetry do cross. The principles involved are illustrated in Fig. 19 for the dimerization of... 

We have emphasized that the Diels-Alder reaction generally takes place rapidly and conveniently. In sharp contrast, the apparently similar dimerization of olefins to cyclobutanes (5-49) gives very poor results in most cases, except when photochemically induced. Fukui, Woodward, and Hoffmann have shown that these contrasting results can be explained by the principle of conservation of orbital symmetry,895 which predicts that certain reactions are allowed and others forbidden. The orbital-symmetry rules (also called the Woodward-Hoffmann rules) apply only to concerted reactions, e.g., mechanism a, and are based on the principle that reactions take place in such a way as to maintain maximum bonding throughout the course of the reaction. There are several ways of applying the orbital-symmetry principle to cycloaddition reactions, three of which are used more frequently than others.896 Of these three we will discuss two the frontier-orbital method and the Mobius-Huckel method. The third, called the correlation diagram method,897 is less convenient to apply than the other two. 

R. B. Woodward, Symposium on Orbital Symmetry Correlation in Organic... 

All of the foregoing discussion of orbital symmetries and relative energies is summarized in Figure 7.15. From this orbital correlation diagram it is seen that all filled bonding orbitals in the reactants correlate with filled bonding... 

The treatment of the UPS of the tr-allyl complex (CsHs)2Nb(C3Hs) is similar to that of the ethylene complexes. One significant difference between the ethylene and tr-allyl complexes, however, is that the symmetry is reduced to C2 in the latter. The correlations between the appropriate orbital symmetries in the C2v and Cs point groups are indicated in Table XIV. 

FIGURE 1. Correlation diagram for the head-to-tail dimerization reaction allowing for reduction in orbital symmetry. S and A designate a molecular orbital as symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to the C2 axis perpendicular to the plane of the page. Reprinted with permission from Ref. 186. Copyright (1992) American Chemical Society... 

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