Mechanisms That Interchange Axial and Equatorial Atoms in Fluxional Processes: Illustration of the Berry Pseudorotation, the Turnstile, and the Lever Mechanisms via Animation of Transition State Normal Vibrational Modes

Abstract

Teaching the Berry pseudorotation mechanism presents particular pedagogic problems due to both its dynamic and three dimensional character. The approach described here illustrates these processes using interactive animations embedded in a Web page.