Frontier Orbitals Aromaticity: A Simple Approach to the Analysis of Pericyclic Reactions†

A. Shaabani

Department of Chemistry, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

A new and simple approach to the analysis of pericyclic reactions based on combination of the interaction of HOMO-LUMO molecular orbitals and Huckel-Mobius aromaticity concept in transition state is reported. This approach seems to be more powerful than the Woodward-Hoffmann approach which appears to be limited to reactions with sufficiently high symmetry, and the Huckel-Mobius that use the non-participating lowest basis set (Ψ1). One important impact of the current approach is its capability in addressing the photochemical concerted reactions.

Keywords: Frontier orbitals aromaticity, Pericyclic reactions, Huckel-Mobius aromaticity, Aromaticity, Cycloaddition.