Alkene distortion energies and torsional effects control reactivities, and stereoselectivities of azide cycloadditions to norbornene and substituted norbornenes.

The transition structures for 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of phenyl azide to norbornene derivatives were located with quantum mechanical methods. Calculations were carried out with M06-2X/6-311G(d,p) and SCS-MP2/6-311G(d,p)//M06-2X/6-311G(d,p) methods. The calculated activation barriers strongly correlate with transition state distortion energies (ΔE(d‡)) but not with the reaction energies. Strain-promoted reactions are accelerated because it is easy to distort the strained reactants to a pyramidalized transition state geometry; a correlation of cycloaddition rates with substrate distortion was found for the bicyclic and tricyclic alkenes studied here. The stereoselectivities of reactions of norbornene derivatives are controlled primarily by torsional effects that also influence alkene pyramidalization. These reactions are distortion-accelerated.