Molecular geometries of benzene and its 18 monosubstituted derivatives were optimized at B3LYP/6-311+G** level of theory. The changes of pi-electron delocalization of the benzene fragment were estimated by use of aromatic stabilization energies (ASE) based on different homodesmotic reaction schemes, geometry-based HOMA model, magnetism-based NICS, NICS(1), NICS(1)zz, and an electronic delocalization index, PDI, derived from the AIM theory. Apart from aromatic stabilization energies the other descriptors of aromaticity vary to a very small extent, indicating high resistance of the pi-electron structure to the substituent effect. This is somewhat analogous to a tendency of benzene systems to retain their initial pi-electron structure during the reaction course that leads to aromatic substitution.

In this work, we have analyzed the local aromaticity of the six-membered rings (6-MRs) of planar and pyramidalized pyracylene species through the structurally based harmonic oscillator model of aromaticity (HOMA), the electronically based para-delocalization index (PDI), and the magnetic-based nucleus independent chemical shift (NICS) measurements, as well as with maps of ring current density. According to ring currents and PDI and HOMA indicators of aromaticity, there is a small reduction of local aromaticity in the 6-MRs of pyracylene with a bending of the molecule. In the case of NICS, the results depend on whether the NICS value is calculated at the center of the ring (NICS(0)) or at 1 A above (NICS(1)(out)) or below (NICS(1)(in)) the ring plane. While NICS(1)(out) values also indicate a slight decrease of aromaticity with bending, NICS(0) and NICS(1)(in) wrongly point out a large increase of aromaticity upon distortion. We have demonstrated that the NICS(0) reduction in the 6-MRs of pyracylene upon bending is due to (a) a strong reduction of the paratropic currents in 5-MRs and (b) the fact that, due to the distortion, the paratropic currents point their effects in other directions.

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The ground and low-lying states of Cu2+−H2O have been studied using different density functional and post-Hartree−Fock methods. CCSD(T) results indicate that Cu2+−H2O has C 2 v symmetry and that the ground electronic state is a 2A1 state. At this level of theory the relative order of the electronic states is 2A1 < 2B1 < 2B2 < 2A2. However, density functional results show that the relative stabilities of these states vary depending on the degree of mixing of exact Hartree−Fock (HF) and density functional (DF) exchange. For pure generalized gradient approximation (GGA) functionals and also for hybrid functionals with percentages of HF mixing up to ∼20−25%, the 2B1 state becomes more stable than the 2A1 one. Moreover, with these functionals a C s (2A‘) structure is found to be the ground-state structure of Cu2+−H2O. This is attributed to the fact that, for C 2 v (2B1) and C s (2A‘), GGA functionals provide a delocalized picture of the electron hole, which is overstabilized due to a bad cancellation of the self-interaction part by the exchange-correlation functional. Among the different functionals tested, the one that provides better results compared to CCSD(T) is the BHLYP one.

The local aromaticities of the six-membered rings in the two lowest-lying singlet states of [n]acenes (n = 6-9) have been assessed by means of three probes of local aromaticity based on structural, magnetic, and electron delocalization properties. Important differences between the local aromaticities of the closed-shell and diradical singlet electronic states are found. Thus, while the inner rings have the largest aromatic character in the closed-shell singlet states, the outer rings become the most aromatic for the diradical singlet states.

A family of highly stable organometallic Cu(III) complexes with monoanionic triazamacrocyclic ligands (L(i)) with general formula [CuL(i)]+ have been prepared and isolated, and their structural, spectroscopic, and redox properties thoroughly investigated. The HL(i) ligands have been designed in order to understand and quantify the electronic effects exerted by electron donor and electron-withdrawing groups on either the aromatic ring or the central secondary amine or on both. In the solid state the Cu(III) complexes were mainly characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, whereas in solution their structural characterization was mainly based on 1H NMR spectroscopy given the diamagnetic nature of the d(8) square-planar Cu(III) complexes. Cyclic voltammetry together with 1H NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopy have allowed us to quantify the electronic effects exerted by the ligands on the Cu(III) metal center. A theoretical analysis of this family of Cu(III) complexes has also been undertaken by DFT calculations to gain a deeper insight into the electronic structure of these complexes, which has in turn allowed a greater understanding of the nature of the UV/Vis transitions as well as the molecular orbitals involved.

The interplay between aromaticity and hydrogen bonding in 1,3-dihydroxyaryl-2-aldehydes is investigated by means of quantum-chemical calculations. The position of the extra ring formed by substituents interacting through the hydrogen bond (HB) is found to influence both the strength of the HB and the local aromaticity of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) skeleton. The HBs are stronger and the entire system is energetically more stable when a kinked-like structure is generated by formation of the quasi-ring. Relatively greater loss of aromaticity of the ipso-ring can be observed for these kinked-like structures because of the larger participation of pi-electrons coming from the ipso-ring in the formation of the quasi-ring. We conclude that the quasi-ring partially adopts the role of a typical aromatic ring, the position of which has a meaningful influence on the aromaticity of the rest of the rings. This makes it possible to explain and modify the properties of 1,3-dihydroxyaryl-2-aldehydes by the planned substitution to the appropriate position of the given PAH.

The eight unique Diels-Alder cycloadditions of butadiene to C 70 are analyzed theoretically and compared with the well-established, two possible Diels-Alder cycloadditions of butadiene to C 60 . Full geometry optimizations of reactants, adducts, and transition states are performed using the AM1 semiempirical method followed by single-point ab initio energy calculations. The results show that the cycloaddition of butadiene to the C 70 fullerene in the gas phase is slightly more reactive than that to C 60 . However, in toluene solution calculations yield that the different solvent effects on C 60 and C 70 cause a significant decrease of the energy barrier in the C 60 cycloaddition, thus predicting a larger reactivity for C 60 as compared to the C 70 fullerene.