Orbital electronic control

One way to anticipate the favored product is to consider the shape of naphthalene s best electron-donor orbital, the highest-occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). Display the HOMO in naphthalene and identify the sites most suitable for electrophilic attack. Which substitution product is predicted by an orbital-control mechanism Ts this the experimental result ... 

Next, consider the reactivity of phenyl diazonium ion. Are either of the reactions shown above consistent with nucleophilic attack at the ion s most electron-poor site Examine the lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of phenyl diazonium ion. What electrophilic sites are identified by the LUMO Are either of the reactions shown above consistent with an orbital-controlled addition ... 

Finally, examine the highest-occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of phenoxide anion. Is the HOMO the best electron-donor orbital Is the orbital localized primarily on oxygen or on carbon Is the observed product consistent with orbital control Explain your answers. 

These concepts play an important role in the Hard and Soft Acid and Base (HSAB) principle, which states that hard acids prefer to react with hard bases, and vice versa. By means of Koopmann s theorem (Section 3.4) the hardness is related to the HOMO-LUMO energy difference, i.e. a small gap indicates a soft molecule. From second-order perturbation theory it also follows that a small gap between occupied and unoccupied orbitals will give a large contribution to the polarizability (Section 10.6), i.e. softness is a measure of how easily the electron density can be distorted by external fields, for example those generated by another molecule. In terms of the perturbation equation (15.1), a hard-hard interaction is primarily charge controlled, while a soft-soft interaction is orbital controlled. Both FMO and HSAB theories may be considered as being limiting cases of chemical reactivity described by the Fukui ftinction. 

The frontier orbital theory [7-9] assumes that the stabihzation by the electron delocalization could control chemical reactions. The stabilization comes from the interactions between the occupied molecular orbitals of one molecule and the unoccupied molecular orbitals of another (Sect. 1.4). The strong interaction occurs when the energy gap is small (Sect. 1.3). The HOMO and the LUMO are the closest in energy to each other. The HOMO-LUMO interaction, especially the interaction between the HOMO of electron donors and the LUMO of electron acceptors, controls the chemical reactions (Scheme 20). The HOMO and the LUMO are termed the frontier orbitals. ... 

The carbonyl n orbital is also assumed to be unsymmetrized arising from the out-of-phase interaction of the orbital attached to the more electron-donating aryl group (9 and 10). These unsymmetrizations of the carbonyl k orbital correspond well to syn addition (9) and anti addition (10), respectively. Thus, the electron-donation of the p-a orbitals controls the facial selectivities. The cyclopentane system was more sensitive to stereoelectronic effects, showing larger induced biases, than the adamantanone system [63]. 

As mentioned above, the unpaired electrons of diradicals may interact with each other through bonds. The orbital phase relationships between the involved orbitals control the effectiveness of the cyclic orbital interactions underlying the through-bond coupling. 

The importance of both frontier orbital-controlled and electronic charge-controlled factors in determining chemical reactivity has been recognized (16). These concepts are the key to interpreting two types of reactivity expected for carbene complexes, i.e., reactions with nucleophilic... 

The reactions of electrogenerated cation radicals of diarylsulfldes are mainly orbital-controlled and at this level the electronic structure of their frontier orbitals (HOMO-SOMO) has very interesting synthetic consequences. The 3p orbitals of sulfur are conjugated with only one aromatic ring even if there are two aryls bound to sulfur. Therefore, only one ring can be activated electrochemically. The degree of the charge delocalization in the ArS moiety of a cation radical on the one hand, and the availability of p- and o-positions for the substitution on the other, determine quite different reactivity of such species. 

The high degree of X-ray polarisation in the electron orbit plane provides means of controlling both the signal/noise ratio and the penetration of the X-rays into the specimen. Depending on whether the incidence plane is chosen vertically or horizontally, sigma or pi polarisation may be selected. The strain sensitivity and the extinction distance can thus be varied while the normal photoelectric absorption conditions remain identical. 

Dnring an electron transfer, the acceptor places its LUMO at the electron disposal and the donor releases an electron that is located on its HOMO. These orbitals are frontier orbitals. In the corresponding ion-radicals, the distribution of an unpaired electron proceeds, naturally, under frontier-orbital control. This definitely reflects in the ion-radical reactivity and not always by a self-obvions manner. Let ns concisely trace peculiarities of ion-radical fragmentation reactions that are very important in organic synthesis. 

The Opposite effects of X (e.g. CHj) and Z (e.g. COOR) or the C—type perturbation (e.g. C Hs) on the coefficient c in LUMO (but the same effect on c at the centers in HOMO) allow the experimental determination of HOMO— or LUMO—control by regio-isomeric distribution in orbital-controlled processes c is a measure of the electron demand in LUMO and the electron density in HOMO)... 

In contrast to the alkynyl anion, coordination to a metal center results in Co, being electron-poor and subject to frontier-orbital controlled nucleophilic attack, while the... 

If these three positions are neglected, leaving aromatic positions and the a-carbon of the sidechain, it is found that the size of the negative charge does not reflect the order of the energy differences. In contrast, the HOMO electron density at the various positions increases in the same sequence as the energy barrier toward chlorination. It may be concluded, therefore, that the chlorination reaction is more sensitive toward orbital control, and steric arguments, than simple coulombic attraction. 

For pyrroles with electron acceptor substituents in the 1-position electrophilic substitution with soft electrophiles can be frontier orbital controlled and occur at the 2-position, whereas electrophilic substitution with hard electrophiles can be charge controlled and occur at the 3-position. 

Much of what we have said about the electronic factors controlling whether a cycloaddition reaction can be concerted or not originally was formulated by the American chemists R. B. Woodward and R. Hoffmann several years ago, in terms of what came to be called the orbital symmetry principles, or the Woodward-Hoffmann rules. Orbital symmetry arguments are too complicated for this book, and we shall, instead, use the 4n + 2 electron rule for-normal Hiickel arrangements of tt systems and the An electron rule for Mobius arrangements. This is a particularly simple approach among several available to account for the phenomena to which Woodward and Hoffmann drew special attention and explained by what they call conservation of orbital symmetry.- ... 

However, the frontier orbital picture based on the free arene does not account for nearly exclusive meta selectivity in addition to [(anisole)Cr(CO)3] LUMO for anisole shows essentially the same pattern as for toluene.98-100 With a strong resonance electron donor the traditional electronic picture (deactivation of the ortho and para positions) is sufficient to account for the observed meta selectivity. In this case the balance of charge control and orbital control is pushed toward charge control by strong polarization. The same argument applies to the aniline and fluotobenzene complexes. 

Thus it is seen that, although antibonding orbitals are not a major factor in describing the bonding of ground-state molecules, they can play a pivotal role in the reactions of molecules. Therefore it is important to keep in mind the existence of antibonding orbitals and their ability to accept electrons and control the reactivity of molecules. 

In the reaction of hydrazine with 2-(l-alkoxyalkylidene)-l,3-dicarbonyl compounds, the 13 C NMR spectral evidence indicates that the only point of initial hydrazine attack is the carbon atom in die ethylene bond and the only observed intermediate is the corresponding enehydrazine. MNDO calculations of the electronic characteristics showed that the reaction obeys orbital control.75... 

---