Conrotatory, Disrotatory Modes Based Approach to Predict Configurational Designation of Axially Chiral Molecules: Study with Undergraduate Students and Analyses

Stereochemistry is a crucial aspect of chemistry education, touching upon various disciplines within the field. But time constraints of the semester system, the pressure of assignments and exams, and difficulties in understanding complex structures are common issues faced by students in undergraduate and post graduate courses to grasp the beauty of stereochemistry. Web based techniques cannot always fulfill the requirements due to lack of infrastructure and equipment for financially challenged institutions and students. So educators can help alleviate some of the challenges students face in learning stereochemistry and foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of important aspects of chemistry via implementation of special strategies. Undoubtedly axial chirality is one of the most important chapters in undergraduate chemistry, and due to its complexity, some new teaching techniques may help the students to get relief from their anxiety in solving problems. In this regard, a method has been proposed here to predict the configurational designation of varieties of axially chiral molecules because students sometimes become confused and spend unnecessary time over this issue when the concerned molecules are presented in different patterns on board, paper, and screen. On the basis of just providing conrotatory and disrotatory mode-based arrows and memorizing one simple mnemonic, anyone can predict the configuration within a few seconds without the need of help of further projection formulas of these molecules. This strategy can be applied even for complex axially chiral structures and acyclic analogues of biaryls to ascertain the right configuration.