Talk:Mod:fjm1988

1.1 Energies for 1 and 2 are OK, although you've included the wrong structure for 2 (double bond missing). What specific interactions account for the greater torsional strain in 2? You haven't given the energies for 3 and 4, although the structures look OK. Why is 4 lower in energy than 3?

1.2 Looks like you've modelled the product rather than the starting material 5! And included the Grignard. What method did you use for this calculation? Note that Grignard addition will NOT be reversible, and so must be kinetically controlled. Is there more than one conformation for starting material 7?

1.3 Your energy for 11 is unreasonably high! There's something wrong, but it's hard for me to see what without a rotatable structure. Have a look to see if you can see what's responsible for the high bend energy.

1.4 Your first two cis-decalins have the wrong stereochemistry at the OH-bearing centre... The third one is a cis-decalin instead of trans. The structure for the cyclisation is missing.

1.5 You say that the HOMO is reactive towards nucleophilic attack...think about this. What method did you use to generate the structures you've shown? (You were asked to compare structures from different methods). I don't understand why your alkene stretches are "missing" (they are key things to analyse!)

Miniproject: Would have been good to have a list of the lit. NMR shifts for the 1,4-isomer alongside the calculated values, for comparison.

Overall - you got most of the calculations done, but a few odd structures and a bit lacking in chemical discussion in places