Photochemical di-Jt-methane

A simple example serves to illnstrate the similarities between a reaction mechanism with a conventional intermediate and a reaction mechanism with a conical intersection. Consider Scheme 9.2 for the photochemical di-tt-methane rearrangement. Chemical intnition snggests two possible key intermediate structures, II and III. Computations conhrm that, for the singlet photochemical di-Jt-methane rearrangement, structure III is a conical intersection that divides the excited-state branch of the reaction coordinate from the ground state branch. In contrast, structure II is a conventional biradical intermediate for the triplet reaction. 

Now let us return to our discussion of the conical intersection structure for the [2+2] photochemical cycloaddition of two ethylenes and photochemical di-Jt-methane rearrangement. They are both similar to the 4 orbital 4 electron model just discussed, except that we have p and p overlaps rather than Is orbital overlaps. In Figure 9.5 it is clear that the conical intersection geometry is associated with T = 0 in Eq. 9.2b. Thus (inspecting Figure 9.5) we can deduce that... 

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