Orbital symmetry and chemical reactions

Abstract

The importance of the symmetry properties of atomic and molecular orbitals for explaining the equilibrium state properties of molecules was described in Chapter 10. It has now become well established that molecular transformations involved in chemical reactions are also determined by the symmetries of the orbitals involved. This observation was first made and verified by Woodward and Hoffman (see the Bibliography), and consequently the rules by which the effects of orbital symmetry on chemical reactions are summarised are frequently referred to as the Woodward-Hoffman rules.