The Orbital Interaction Approach to Structural and Conformational Problems in Organic Chemistry

AbstractThe relationship between the functional group approach to organic chemistry and the group orbital approach to the analysis of molecular orbital results is discussed. The concept of group orbital interactions, within the framework of perturbational molecular orbital theory, leads to a treatment of structural and stereochemical problems that can take both stabilizing and destabilizing effects into account, can be applied either qualitatively or quantitatively and can be done in a manner that is both internally and externally consistent. Certain advantages of these procedures over the classical methods of organic chemistry are pointed out, but it is also recognized that semantic and pedagogical problems must be overcome to make the method generally acceptable.