Molecular orbitals are critical in the rationalization of several chemical reactions. Thus, the frontier molecular orbital theory, proposed by Fukui's group, postulated the importance of the Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) and the Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) for chemical reactions. It should be kept in mind, however, that there are limitations of this theory and new perspectives about the chemical reactivity have recently been arisen based on composition and location of other frontier molecular orbitals. In this review, we have reported the development and the most recent applications of the Frontier Effective-for-Reaction Molecular Orbital (FERMO) concept, which describes the breaking and formation of new chemical bonds and can in turn, provide important clues that modulate chemical reactivity of atoms and molecules.

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Organophosphorus compounds are organic compounds widely employed in agriculture as well as in chemical weapons. The use in agriculture is due to their insecticidal properties. However, in chemical warfare, the use of organophosphorus is associated with acetylcholinesterase inhibition, which promotes the cholinergic syndromes. In this line, the fast detection of this class of compound is crucial for the determination of environmental exposure. This improved detection will naturally allow for more prompt courses of treatment depending on the contaminant findings. In this perspective, the dipyrrinone oxime (1) was employed for the detection of organophosphorus compounds that are employed as nerve agents, such as cyclosarin, sarin, soman, diethyl chlorophosphate, diisopropylfluorophosphate, 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl N,N-dimethylphosphoramidofluoridate, O-ethyl-S-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl]methylphosphonothioate, O-ethyl-S-[2(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothioate, and O,O-diethyl-S-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl] phosphorothioate, through fluorescent emission. The thermodynamics and kinetic parameters as well as spectroscopic properties of the complexes formed for 1 and all organophosphorus compounds previously cited were investigated by means of theoretical calculations. From our findings, only the diethyl chlorophosphate, 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl N,N-dimethylphosphoramidofluoridate, and O,O-diethyl-S-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl] phosphorothioate emitted fluorescence in the hexane, toluene, chloroform, dichloromethane, methanol, acetonitrile, water, and dimethyl sulfoxide solvents. The study of the absorption wavelength with the most polar solvent showed higher values compared to apolar solvents. In the same solvent, for instance, soman in hexane showed the lowest absorption wavelength value, 324.5 nm, and DCP the highest value, 330.8 nm. This behavior was observed in other tested solvents. The thermodynamic parameters indicate negative Gibbs free energy (ΔG) values for the O-ethyl-S-[2(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothioate with 1 reaction. On the other hand, the sarin and cyclosarin revealed the lowest Gibbs free energy (ΔG‡) values, being kinetically favorable and presenting more reactivity.

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The relative extent of protonation in oxygen and carbon atoms and the position of protonation in carbons depend on several factors. We seek to locate the frontier molecular orbitals involved in the protonation reactions of substituted phenols using the FERMO concept through the MOLPROJ software, to compare the computational results with experimental NMR data obtained in the literature. We evaluate computationally the stereo-electronic effects that govern reactions of aromatic electrophilic substitution using an experimental study as an example. The MOLPROJ returned a percentage of correct answers of approximately 86% in the protonation sites. The experimental results on the protonation sites were rationalized in terms of stereoelectronic effects.