-Electron Currents in Polycyclic Conjugated Hydrocarbons of Decreasing Aromatic Character and a Novel Structural Definition of Aromaticity

We consider a set of nine polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbons, which includes at one extreme benzene, the prototype of aromatic compounds, and at the other extreme cyclooctatetraene, a well-known nonaromatic compound, while the remaining seven compounds illustrate molecules of decreasing degree of aromaticity. Using the model of conjugated circuits for calculations of ring currents, we report on variations in the -electron ring currents in these molecules with the decrease of their degree of aromaticity. This contribution is a hybrid of original scientific paper and a review, and if viewed as provocative, it is so by design.