Woodward-Hoffman Orbital Correlation Diagrams

The photochemical dimerization of unsaturated hydrocarbons such as olefins and aromatics, cycloaddition reactions including the addition of 02 ( A ) to form endoperoxides and photochemical Diels-Alders reaction can be rationalized by the Woodward-Hoffman Rule. The rule is based on the principle that the symmetry of the reactants must be conserved in the products. From the analysis of the orbital and state symmetries of the initial and final state, a state correlation diagram can be set up which immediately helps to make predictions regarding the feasibility of the reaction. If a reaction is not allowed by the rule for the conservation of symmetry, it may not occur even if thermodynamically allowed. 

The leaving ligand treatment within the AOM has been extended" to the following steps of the photoisomerization process— the isomerization of the resulting five-coordinate species, followed by the nucleophilic attack of the entering ligand. The electronic structure control of the latter two steps was based on state correlation diagrams, but nicely translated into orbital pictures of the Woodward-Hoffman rules of conservation of orbital symmetry. 

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