Department of Chemistry, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, USA.
Chem Rec. 2022 Aug;22(8):e202200137. doi: 10.1002/tcr.202200137. Epub 2022 Jul 25.
It is a reasonable question to ask, why, as of 1965 when the five Woodward-Hoffmann communications appeared, did no other organic chemist discover the orbital symmetry rules for pericyclic reactions? The previous two papers in this 27-paper series on the history of the Woodward-Hoffmann rules discussed the physical chemists, chemical physicists, and theoretical chemists who could have solved the pericyclic no-mechanism problem; and the organic chemists in whose laboratory many of the key hints to this problem were found but still did not solve the problem. The stories of 16 other chemists who knew of (at least portions of) the pericyclic no-mechanism problem are presented in this paper. Social, political, and scientific explanations are presented as partial rationalizations as to why none of these individuals - except Woodward with Hoffmann - solved the pericyclic no-mechanism problem.
这是一个合理的问题，自 1965 年伍德沃德-霍夫曼的五篇通讯发表以来，为什么没有其他有机化学家发现周环反应的轨道对称规则？本系列关于伍德沃德-霍夫曼规则历史的 27 篇论文中的前两篇讨论了本可以解决周环无机理问题的物理化学家、化学物理学家和理论化学家；以及在其实验室中发现了许多解决这个问题的关键线索但仍然没有解决这个问题的有机化学家。本文介绍了另外 16 位了解（至少部分）周环无机理问题的化学家的故事。本文提出了社会、政治和科学方面的解释，以部分说明为什么这些人——除了伍德沃德和霍夫曼之外——都没有解决周环无机理问题。
