The Mechanistic Tool

There are many techniques of varying degrees of generality for the study of mechanisms and that of free energy relationships is the most readily applicable and general. Free energy relationships comprise the simplest and easiest of techniques to use but the results are probably the trickiest to interpret of all the mechanistic tools. 

The announcement of theoretical models emphasizing molecular orbitals to explain these reactions inspired experimentalists to test and expand upon the theorists work. Some of the most elegant and insightful mechanistic studies ever executed were designed to probe pericyclic reactions. As such, this chapter will also give us the opportunity to apply many of the mechanistic tools we have learned in earlier chapters. 

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