The Mechanism of Substitution Reactions

Abstract

For many substitution reactions of the type AB+C→AC+B, the strength of the bond between A and B is too great to account for the rate of the reaction. For such reactions addition or simultaneous addition and dissociations must occur. From the quantum mechanical conception of bonds, it is shown that a spatial inversion of A occurs for every such substitution. This theory is applied in detail to some experiments on the Walden inversion, and a definite correlation between rotational and configurational changes is obtained. Its use is studying molecular rearrangements and cis‐trans isomerization is sketched.