π-Electron ring currents and magnetic properties of porphyrin molecules in the MO LCAO SCF method

The coupled variant of double-parameter perturbation theory in the MO LCAO SCF method in the London approximation has been used for the calculation of π-electron current distributions in the molecules of porphin and its derivatives. The chemical shifts of¹H-NMR have been computed on the basis of calculations of ring currents and charge distributions. It is shown that π-electron ring currents are responsible for the dominant contribution to the shielding of protons. The theoretical and experimental values of proton chemical shifts are in a good agreement. Chemical shifts of the¹³C and¹⁵N nuclei have also been estimated. Two aromaticity scales are proposed for the compounds under study based on the calculations of the π-electron contribution to the diamagnetic susceptibility and of π-electron currents, respectively.