Bradley David, Hillier Bethany K, Peeks Martin D
School of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2023 Nov 9;59(90):13438-13441. doi: 10.1039/d3cc03464j.
When oxidized, cycloparaphenylenes and porphyrin nanorings can exhibit macrocyclic ring currents which have been used to assign these molecules as (anti)aromatic. These assignments have been controversial because the presence of ring currents does not always imply cyclic electronic delocalization, which is essential to the definition of aromaticity. Here, we show that the emergence of macrocyclic ring currents in these molecules is correlated with increased electronic delocalization, supporting assignments of these molecules as (anti)aromatic.
