Quantification of substituent and ligand size by the use of solid angles

Abstract

AbstractA new, generalized, method for measuring the steric size of ligands and substituents has been developed. The method is based on the solid angle concept, the solid angle being generated by the pairwise addition of spheres (atoms). The problem of overlapping spheres (atoms) has been solved analytically and the algorithm provided permits evaluation of the steric space occupied by any combination of spheres (atoms). A range of solid angles for commonly encountered ligands and substituents has been determined and compared to literature values for linear cone angles. © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.