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Origin of the Bürgi-Dunitz Angle
Humberto A Rodríguez1,2, F Matthias Bickelhaupt3,4,5, Israel Fernández1
1Departamento de Química Orgánica and Centro de Innovación en Química Avanzada (ORFEO-CINQA), Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Ciudad Universitaria, 28040-, Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
The Bürgi-Dunitz (BD) angle plays a pivotal role in organic chemistry to rationalize the nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups. Yet, the origin of the obtuse trajectory of the nucleophile remains incompletely understood. Herein, we quantify the importance of the underlying physical factors quantum chemically. The obtuse BD angle appears to originate from the concerted action of a reduced Pauli repulsion between the nucleophile HOMO and carbonyl π bond, a more stabilizing HOMO-π*-LUMO(C=O) interaction, as well as a more favorable electrostatic attraction.
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