According to the frontier orbital theory, the chemistry of conjugated π systems is largely determined by the HOMO and LUMO π orbitals in the reactant molecules. The outcome of reactions involving interaction of π orbitals can be rationalized using the concepts of orbital phase and symmetry. The figure on the right illustrates what is meant by the orbital phase using 1,3-butadiene as an example. In this molecule, four atomic p orbitals form four π molecular orbitals. The four molecular orbitals differ by the extent of favorable overlap, and thus in energy. The lowest energy MO forms from the in-phase overlap of all four p atomic orbitals; the next one forms when two pairs or in-phase atomic orbitals overlap; the third when one pair of in-phase atomic orbitals overlaps, and the highest energy molecular orbital forms when there are no in-phase overlaps. The MO’s are filled with electrons starting with the lowest-energy orbital such that two electrons occupy an MO. In case of 1,3-butadiene, there are 4 π electrons, thus the second lowest-energy orbital is the HOMO.
The Diels-Alder reaction is a cycloaddition reaction between a conjugated diene and dienophile.
Diels-Alder reaction has high synthetic utility for making unsaturated six-membered rings. The reaction with unsubstituted dienophile (as shown above) is very slow but the Diels-Alder reactions occur readily when the alkene has a electron-withdrawing substituent. For example, acrolein is a good dienophile. Cycloalkenes, especially ones where the double bond is conjugated to a carbonyl, can be used as dienophiles. The diene is required to have an s-cis conformation and cyclic dienes work well in this reaction. For example, a reaction between 1,3-cyclohexadiene and chloroethene yields a bicyclic reaction product.
Note that chlorine is a relatively poor π-electron withdrawing group and the reaction above in not very fast. Interestingly, many Diels-Alder reactions occur much faster in water than in organic solvents. Scientists are still working on finding out why aqueous environment accelerates this reaction.
The Diels-Alder reaction is highly stereoselectivive: cis-substituted dienophiles yield cis-substituted cyclohexenes and trans-substituted dienophiles yield trans-substituted cyclohexenes. Stereoselectivity in Diels-Alder reaction can be rationalized considering the overlap of HOMO of one reactant with LUMO of the other. Table below shows π molecular orbitals for ethylene (dienophile) and 1,3-butadiene; clicking on the image will bring up Virtual Reality Modeling Language models for orbitals.
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| Dienophile | LUMO (Lowest-Energy Unoccupied Pi Orbital). This orbital accepts electrons from the diene during the reaction. Electron-widtawing substituents conjugated to the double-bond reducing the Pi-electron density and allow for better “flow” of electrons to this orbital. In practice, alkenes with a conjugated carbonyl group are good dienophiles in the Diels-Alder reaction. |  |
| Dienophile | HOMO (Highest-energy Occupied Pi Orbital) |  |
| Diene | LUMO+1 High-energy unoccupied Pi molecular orbital in butadiene has three nodes and is asymmetric. This molecular orbial rearranges to become the asymmetric LUMO of the reaction product. |
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| Diene | LUMO Lowest unoccupied Pi molecular orbital in butadiene has two nodes and is symmetric. This orbital allows for a favorable overlap with symmetric HOMO of the dienophile during the reaction. |
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| Diene | HOMput DielsAlder.html O Highest occupied Pi molecular orbital in butadiene has one node and is asymmetric. Electrons from this Pi orbital could “flow” to the antisymmetric LUMO of dienophile during the reaction, allowing for formation of two new carbon-carbon bonds. |
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| Diene | HOMO-1 Lowest-energy occupied Pi molecular orbital has no nodes and is symmetric. This molecular orbial rearranges to become the symmetric HOMO of the reaction product. |
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Alkenes are named as if they were alkanes, but the “-ane” suffix is changed to “-ene”. If the alkene contains only one double bond and that double bond is terminal (the double bond is at one end of the molecule or another) then it is not necessary to place any number in front of the name.
If the double bond is not terminal (if it is on a carbon somewhere in the center of the chain) then the carbons should be numbered in such a way as to give the first of the two double-bonded carbons the lowest possible number, and that number should precede the “ene” suffix with a dash, as shown below.
correct: pent-2-ene (CH3CH=CHCH2CH3)
incorrect: pent-3-ene (CH3CH2CH=CHCH3)
The second one is incorrect because flipping the formula horizontally results in a lower number for the alkene.
If there is more than one double bond in an alkene, all of the bonds should be numbered in the name of the molecule – even terminal double bonds. The numbers should go from lowest to highest, and be separated from one another by a comma. The IUPAC numerical prefixes are used to indicate the number of double bonds.
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