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).

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