Chemical repercussions of orbital interactions through bond and through space The reactivity of the double bond in unsaturated cyclic sulphones towards aziridine formation and epoxidation

The ease of formation of aziridine and/or epoxides from a series of bicyclic olefins, where distant sulphonyl groups are present, is very variable. There is some correlation between reactivity of the vinyl group and its π-ionisation potential which is high in the present molecules relative to comparison olefins. This increase is thought to be due to the presence of orbital interactions through bonds and/or through space between the sulphone group and the double bond, making the latter electron deficient. The ionisation potentials were determined by UV-photoelectron spectroscopy and the assignments made by recourse to ab initio configuration interaction methods.