Origins of boat or chair preferences in the Ireland-Claisen rearrangements of cyclohexenyl esters: a theoretical study.

The relative energies of the chair and boat transition states of a variety of Ireland-Claisen rearrangements were obtained by B3LYP/6-31G calculations. Theoretical results are in good agreement with experimental data and provide a quantitative analysis of the origins of boat preferences that are observed in some of these reactions.