HYBRIDIZATION AS A METRIC FOR THE REACTION COORDINATE OF CHEMICAL-REACTIONS

The reaction coordinate is usually chosen to be a simple function of t he bonds that are broken or formed in a chemical reaction. Although su ch an approach is adequate for the analysis of isolated reaction proce sses, it does not provide a general metric that allows ready compariso n between different chemical reactions. In this paper, we introduce hy bridization as a unifying metric for the degree of structural progress in organic reaction processes and illustrate the usefulness of such a n analysis by reference to the Hammond postulate and electrocyclic rea ctions.