The shielding cone in spherical aromatic structures: insights from models for spherical 2(N + 1)2 aromatic fullerenes.

A direct correlation between π- and spherical aromaticity of the aromatic structures was established by showing that they shared a characteristic shielding cone, resulting from a specific orientation of the applied field. Herein, we revealed the presence of a related long-range shielding cone in spherical aromatic species that was demonstrated through C20, C32, C50, and C60 Hirsh aromatic fullerenes. It was found that while for planar aromatics, the cone is reserved only for a perpendicularly applied field, for spherical aromatic compounds, the three-dimensional cage allows the formation of a shielding cone according to the given orientation of the external field.