Conrotatory

Conrotatory Definition:

In electrocyclic reactions, a type of rotation in which the orbitals being used to form the new s bond must rotate in the same way.

Conrotatory Explained:

An electrocyclic reaction which is based on the rotation of each end of the molecule. In conrotatory the orbitals, both turn in the same direction whether clockwise or counterclockwise. To determine if whether a particular reaction has these features an observation of the orbitals movements in each molecule will show.

2 key factors in identifying the reaction:

  1. seeing how many electrons are in pi-system
  2. if it is induced by light or heat