The Steric Nature of the Bite Angle

Twisted! We show, based on DFT analyses, that the well‐known dependence of a catalyst's activity in bond activation on the ligand–metal–ligand angle, or bite angle, has a primarily steric origin, not an electronic one. Thus, by bending or twisting the catalyst a priori, one avoids unfavorable nonbonded interactions with the substrate (see figure). magnified image