Syn and anti aryl nitrenium ions

Calculations at several levels of ab initio molecular orbital theory have been carried out on 20 polycyclic aryl nitrenium ions of general structure ArNH⁺ and containing from two to four condensed rings. Electronic interactions between the aryl ring and the NH⁺ group stabilize all ions relative to PhNH⁺ by amounts varying from 14 to 40 kcal mol⁻¹ depending on the ring system and on the site of substitution. Apart from a few symmetrical cases, the ions exist in distinct syn and anti configurations, separated by substantial inversion barriers. At the HF/6‐31G(d) level, the latter are predicted to lie in the rather narrow range of 27.8±2.0 kcal mol⁻¹. Simple PMO analyses are presented based on the analogy with odd alternant hydrocarbon cations. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 20: 231–243, 1999