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Aromaticity rules

Nature Chemistry volume 14, pages 585–590 (2022)Cite this article

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In 1931, Erich Hückel published a landmark paper — the seed of the now famous 4n + 2 rule for aromaticity in annulenes that bears his name. Electron counting has since been extended to other classes of compounds, resulting in a multitude of rules aiming to capture the concept of aromaticity and its impact in chemistry.

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Fig. 1: Aromaticity rules for annulenes.
Fig. 2: Extension of aromaticity rules to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and 3D systems.
Fig. 3: Cylindrical aromaticity.
Fig. 4: Combining or connecting rules.

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Acknowledgements

The following organizations are thanked for financial support: the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN, project number PID2020-113711GB-I00) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (project number 2017SGR0039). I am grateful to A. Artigas and K. Jorner for their careful reading and suggestions of improvement.

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  1. Institut de Química Computacional i Catàlisi (IQCC) and Departament de Química, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Catalonia, Spain

    Miquel Solà

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Correspondence to Miquel Solà.

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Solà, M. Aromaticity rules. Nat. Chem. 14, 585–590 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00961-w

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