Thermal and photochemical reactivity of cyclopropene derivatives: a semi-empirical molecular orbital study

Abstract

The MINDO/3 semi-empirical MO method has been used to study the conversion of cyclopropene to vinyl carbene. In particular, the surfaces of the ground state and the first excited singlet and triplet states have been calculated. Additional calculations, including geometry optimization, have been carried out on vinyl substituted cyclopropenes. In general, the results are consistent with the known thermal and photochemical reactivities of cyclopropenes and the results of the few abinitio calculations on these species.