NICK HENRY WERSTIUK and JIANGONG MA. Can. J. Chem. 72,2493 (1 994).The Diels-Alder reactions of maleic anhydride (1) with a group of C5-substituted cyclopentadienes and 2,5-dimethylthiophene oxide (5) have been studied with the semi-empirical method AM1. We find that the facial selectivities and relative reactivities found experimentally for six dienes (2n-2f) are accurately reproduced at this level of theory. The results of the calculational study provide no concrete support for the proposal that a-a* hyperconjugation in the transition state -an interaction between a a bond at C5 of the cyclopentadiene and the incipient a bonds anti to it (the Cieplak effect) -is the major source of the syn facial selectivity observed for 2a-2d. In addition, the relative reactivities and facial selectivities are predicted for a number of cyclopentadienes which will be synthesized and studied experimentally.NICK HENRY WERSTIUK et JIANGONG MA. Can. J. Chem. 72,2493Chem. 72, (1994. Faisant appel 2 la methode semi-empirique AM I, on a CtudiC les rkactions de Diels-Alder de l'anhydride maleique (I) avec un certain nombre de cyclopentadiknes substituCs en position 5 et avec l'oxyde du 2,5-dimCthylthiophkne (5). On a trouvC que, h ce niveau de la thCorie, il est possible de reproduire fidklement les sClectivitCs faciales et les rCactivitCs relatives observCes expCrimentalement pour les six diknes (2n-2f). Les rCsultats de I'Ctude par calculs ne fournit aucun support concret pour la proposition qui a CtC faite selon laquelle de l'hyperconjugaison a** dans I'Ctat de transition -une interaction entre une liaison a au niveau C5 du cyclopentadibne et les liaisons a qui se forment anti par rapport h elles (effet Cieplak) -serait la cause principale de la sClectivitC faciale syn observCe avec les composCs 2n-2d. De plus, on a prCdit les rCactivitCs relatives et les sClectivitCs faciales d'un certain nombre de cyclopentadiknes qui seront synthCtisCs et CtudiCs expCrimentalement.[Traduit par la redaction] Introduction The synthetic utility of the Diels-Alder reaction is well established although the ability to control the facial selectivity which would render the reaction enantioselective with asvmmetric planar 1,3-dienes and potentially generate five or more chiral centres in one operation, is limited in the absence of chiral auxiliaries. In the reaction of C5-substituted cyclopentadienes where n-facial diastereoselectivity has been observed in the absence of chiral auxiliaires, the origin of the selectivity is still imperfectly understood even though a wide range of substrates have been studied experimentally (1-16) and computationally (17-25). These investigations revealed that a number of factors are important and various suggestions have been advanced as possible sources of the pattern observed. These include steric effects, complexation between diene and dienophile, secondary orbital interactions, polarizability, electrostatic interactions, orbital mixing, and transition state hyperconjugation. This latter interpretation proposed by Ci...