Planar mono‐, di‐ aza‐ and phospha‐naphthalene: Structure and aromaticity

In this article, we used magnetic criteria, magnetic susceptibility isotropic and nucleus‐independent chemical shifts (NICS), calculated with (density functional theory) B3LYP levels at the 6‐31G** basis set, to evaluate aromaticity of a set of 29 planar bicyclic π‐electron systems: naphthalene and its mono‐ and di‐ aza‐ and phospha‐derivatives. The result showed significant collinearity of the above two magnetic criteria when evaluating N‐containing naphthalenes, but did not speak with the same voice when evaluating P‐containing naphthalenes. Thus, we could conclude that magnetic susceptibility is a reliable criterion and NICS is not in our case. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2007