Up to now, drawing out reaction mechanisms using the curved arrow formalism has been fairly straightforward. Yes, sometimes there is some ambiguity with respect to which carbon of a C-C π bond is forming a new bond to an electrophile, but that can be readily solved by adding a few … [Read more...]
Thermodynamic and Kinetic Control
First, an explanation. This happened. So things at MOC have basically been on hold for a few weeks. Life is now returning to normal. The following discussion has nothing to do with the above, other than the fact that my dad's best friend wryly observed of him: "When he opened his wallet, moths … [Read more...]
What’s a Transition State?
Here's a question that comes up a lot: What's a transition state? A transition state is a very short-lived configuration of atoms at a local energy maximum in a reaction-energy diagram (aka reaction coordinate). A transition state has partial bonds, an extremely short lifetime (measured in … [Read more...]