A computer program has been developed that predicts products of organic reactions from starting materials and conditions, using general principles of organic reaction mechanisms. Organic chemistry professor William L. Jorgensen of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., has completed the phase of program development dealing with base-catalyzed and nucleophilic reactions [ J. Org. Chem ., 45 , 2043 (1980)]. Future program modules will include acidcatalyzed and electrophilic, radical, carbene, thermal pericyclic, and photochemical reactions. Such mechanistically oriented programs may permit prediction of undiscovered reactions. Also, proposed reactions can be evaluated for feasibility and competition from side reactions. The ordering of organic mechanistic principles for the program may also improve the teaching of organic chemistry. Other workers have devised mechanistically based programs for such projects as finding the best mechanism for successive carbonium ion rearrangements from starting materials t...
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