Article ID: CBB217999213

History of the Woodward‐Hoffmann Rules. The No‐Mechanism Puzzle** (2022)

unapi

This is Paper 2 in the 27‐paper series on the history of the development of the Woodward‐Hoffmann rules. Paper 2 takes the reader back to the 1950s and early 1960s, before the publication of the first Woodward‐Hoffmann paper in January 1965. The scope of the pericyclic no‐mechanism problem is described along with many of the key “hints” or “clues” to orbital symmetry control that were available in the literature prior to 1965. A chronology of reactions with alternating stereospecificities is provided. A second chronology of alternating theoretical hints is provided, e. g., 4 n +2 versus 4 n . Another chronology is provided, that of the development of frontier molecular orbital theory, with and without phases and nodes. A tabulation is provided of 36 instances in which the MOs of 1,3‐butadiene were reported in the literature. A knowledge of the MOs of 1,3‐butadiene, plus a knowledge of some of the alternating stereospecific reactions, could have led many chemists to the solution of the pericyclic no‐mechanism problem before Woodward and Hoffmann.

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Review Arthur Greenberg (2022) Review of "History of the Woodward‐Hoffmann Rules. The No‐Mechanism Puzzle**". Bulletin for the History of Chemistry (pp. 260-262). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Seeman, Jeffrey I.
Kaspar F. Burri
Richard J. Friary
Blumenthal, Stanley A.
Bosnich, B.
Causá, Mauro
Journals
Bulletin for the History of Chemistry
Foundations of Chemistry
Historical Records of Australian Science
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
化学史研究 [Kagakushi kenkyū; Journal of the Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry]
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Publishers
American Chemical Society
Princeton University
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Oxford University Press
University of Chicago Press
Concepts
Organic chemistry
Molecules
Chemistry
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Stereochemistry
Molecular and solid state physics
People
Woodward, Robert Burns
Hoffmann, Roald
Corey, E. J.
Djerassi, Carl
Ingold, Christopher
Nicolaou, K. C.
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
21st century
19th century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Basel (Switzerland)
Australia
China
Europe
Institutions
American Chemical Society
Woodward Research Institute
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