The introduction of the three-centered two-electron delocalized bond invoked in the non-classical picture of the 2-norbornyl cation allowed chemists to explore a whole new realm of chemical bonds. Chemists were eager to apply the characteristics of hypovalent electronic states to new and old systems alike (though several got too carried away). One of the most fundamentally important concepts that emerged from the intense research focused around non-classical ions was the idea that electrons already involved in sigma bonds could be involved with reactivity. Though filled pi orbitals were known to be electron donors, chemists had doubted that sigma orbitals could function in the same capacity. The non-classical description of the 2-norbornyl cation can be seen as the donation of an electron pair from a carbon-carbon sigma bond into an empty p-orbital of carbon 2. Thus this carbocation showed that sigma-bond electron donation is as plausible as pi-bond electron donation.
The intense debate that followed Brown’s challenge to non-classical ion proponents also had a large impact on the field of chemistry. In order to prove or disprove the non-classical nature of the 2-norbornyl cation, chemists on both sides of the debate zealously sought out new techniques for chemical characterization and more innovative interpretations of existing data. One spectroscopic technique that was further developed to investigate the 2-norbornyl cation was nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of compounds in highly acidic media. Comparisons of the 2-norbornyl cation to unstable transition states with delocalized electronic states were often made when trying to elucidate whether the norbornyl system was stable or not. These efforts motivated closer investigations of transition states and vastly increased the scientific community’s understanding of their electronic structure. In short, vigorous competition between scientific groups led to an extensive research and a better understanding of the underlying chemical concepts.