4.02 | Correlation Diagrams

Monday June 19th 2023 | In this lesson we dive deeper in understanding the Woodward/Hoffman rules, by construction correlation diagrams for the Diels-Alder and Electrocyclization reaction. Important is to establish which symmetry element is conserved throughout the reaction (conservation of symmetry). According to this symmetry element, we analyze both the orbitals of interest of the product and that of the starting materials. By drawing correlation between the orbitals, we can understand if the ground-state of the products also leads to the ground-state of the reactants. As will be evident in the lecture, we will establish that 2+2 cyclo-additions are thermally forbidden, but photochemically allowed. Likewise, we will establish that in electrocyclization reactions, the stereochemistry depends on whether a reaction is proceeding thermally or photochemically.

The link to the video can be found below: