| Abstract
| - Quantum chemical studies on complexes of the 2-norbornyl cation with ammonia and benzene aredescribed. These calculations demonstrate that the delocalized, bridged, nonclassical geometry that isusually favored for this carbocation can be perturbed significantly toward the normally less favorableclassical geometry through appropriately oriented noncovalent interactions. Since such cations have beenproposed as intermediates in enzyme and antibody catalyzed reactions, these results have implicationsfor the nature of the cationic species that may be generated in the presence of electron-rich amino acidside chains of the sort that may be present in the active sites of biocatalysts.
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