Substituent Effects on Torsional Strain in Cyclopentene Derivatives: A Computational Study.

Density functional theory calculations were used to create a library of ring strain energies (RSEs) for 73 cyclopentene derivatives with potential use as monomers for ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). An overarching goal was to probe how substituent choice may influence torsional strain, which is the driving force for ROMP and one of the most understudied types of RSEs. Potential trends investigated include substituent location, size, electronegativity, hybridization, and steric bulk.