The aromatic nature of auracycles and diauracycles based on calculated ring-current strengths

Abstract

We have calculated the magnetically induced current density susceptibility for gold-containing organometallic molecular rings using the gauge-including magnetically induced currents (GIMIC) method. The aromatic nature has been determined by calculating the strength of the magnetically induced ring current susceptibility, which is often called ring current. To our knowledge, we show here for the first time that gold-containing organometallic rings may be aromatic or antiaromatic sustaining ring currents in the presence of an external magnetic field. The calculated aromatic character of the rings agrees with the aromatic nature one expects when using Hückel's aromaticity rules. The studied auracycles and diauracycles with 4n electrons in the conjugated orbitals generally sustain a weak paratropic ring current, whereas those having 4n + 2 electrons in the conjugated orbitals sustain a diatropic ring current that is almost as strong as that of benzene. The number of electrons are obtained by assuming that each C, N and Au atom of the ring contribute one electron, and a H atom connected to a N atom in the ring increases the number of electrons by one. An electron-attracting ligand at Au removes one electron from the ring. Formation of a short Au–Au bonding diauracycles reduces the number of electrons in the ring by two.