A claim on the development of the frontier orbital explanation of electrocyclic reactions

Abstract

The well-known Woodward-Hoffmann rules explain how the feasibility and stereochemical outcome of pericyclic reactions are governed by the symmetry properties of the molecular orbitals of the reactants and products. Triggered by a recent claim by E. J. Corey, Roald Hoffmann recalls the first steps in the development of this theory.