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Updated: Mar 11, 2026

The Preparation and Properties of Thermo-reversibly Cross-linked Rubber Via Diels-Alder Chemistry
Published on: August 25, 2016
Deeper Insight into the Diels-Alder Reaction through the Activation Strain Model
Israel Fernández1, F Matthias Bickelhaupt2,3
1Departamento de Química Orgánica I, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040-, Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
In this Focus Review, we present the application of the so-called Activation Strain Model of chemical reactivity to the Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction. To this end, representative recent examples have been selected to illustrate the power of this new computational approach to gain a deeper quantitative understanding of this fundamental process in chemistry. We cover a wide range of issues, such as, the "endo-rule", reactivity trends emerging from systematic variation in the reactants' strain, and cycloaddition reactions involving relevant species in material science, that is, fullerenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nanotubes.
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