All books

Professional

Apps About Coach Log in Start reading

Chemistry · Glossary

What is Orbital correlation diagram?

Definition 26.8 University Chemistry — Year 3 · Chapter 26 — Pericyclic Reactions

An orbital correlation diagram links each orbital of the reactant to the orbital of the product of the same symmetry, with respect to the symmetry elements kept along the reaction path, taking them in order of energy: the lowest S with the lowest S, and so on.

Orbital correlation diagrams for butadiene  cyclobutene. Left, the disrotatory path keeps a mirror plane: the occupied _2 (A) correlates with the empty π* (A) of cyclobutene (red dashed): thermally forbidden. Right, the conrotatory path keeps a C_2 axis: occupied orbitals go to occupied orbitals: thermally allowed.
Orbital correlation diagrams for butadiene ⇌\rightleftharpoons cyclobutene. Left, the disrotatory path keeps a mirror plane: the occupied ψ2\psi_2 (A) correlates with the empty π∗\pi^* (A) of cyclobutene (red dashed): thermally forbidden. Right, the conrotatory path keeps a C2C_2 axis: occupied orbitals go to occupied orbitals: thermally allowed.
Read in context →