Conspectus
Aromaticity,
one of the most
fundamental concepts in chemistry,
has attracted considerable attention from both theoreticians and experimentalists.
Much effort on aromaticity in organometallics has been devoted to
metallabenzene and derivatives. In comparison, aromaticity in other
organometallics is less developed. This Account describes how our
group has performed quantum chemical calculations to examine aromaticity
in recently synthesized novel organometallic complexes. By collaborations
with experimentalists, we have extended several aromaticity concepts
into organometallics to highlight the power of transition metals.
In general, the transition metal could participate in delocalization
either out of rings or in the rings. We examined the former by probing
the possibility of transition metal substituents in hyperconjugative
aromaticity, where the metal is out of the rings. Calculations on
tetraaurated heteroaryl complexes reveal that incorporation of the
aurated substituents at the nitrogen atom can convert nonaromaticity
in the parent indolium into aromaticity in the aurated one due to
hyperconjugation, thus extending the concept of hyperconjugative aromaticity
to heterocycles with transition metal substituents. More importantly,
further analysis indicates that the aurated substituents can perform
better than traditional main-group substituents. Recently, we also
probed the strongest aromatic cyclopentadiene and pyrrolium rings
by hyperconjugation of transition metal substituents. Moreover, theoretical
calculations suggest that one electropositive substituent is able
to induce aromaticity; whereas one electronegative substituent prompts
nonaromaticity rather than antiaromaticity.
We also probed the
possibility of Craig-type Möbius aromaticity
in organometallic chemistry, where the position of the transition
metals is in the rings. According to the electron count and topology,
aromaticity can be classified as Hückel-type and Möbius-type.
In comparison with numerous Hückel aromatics containing 4n+2 π-electrons, Möbius aromatics with 4n π-electrons, especially the Craig-type species,
are particularly limited. We first examined aromaticity in osmapentalynes.
Theoretical calculations reveal that incorporation of the osmium center
not only reduces the ring strain of the parent pentalyne, but also
converts Hückel antiaromaticity in the parent pentalyne into
Craig-type Möbius aromaticity in metallapentalynes. Further
studies show that the transition metal fragments can also make both
16e and 18e osmapentalenes aromatic, indicating that the Craig-type
Möbius aromaticity in osmapentalyne is rooted in osmapentalenes.
In addition, Möbius aromaticity is also possible in dimetalla[10]annulenes,
where the lithium atoms are not spectator cations but play an important
role due to their bonding interaction with the diene moieties.
We then examined the possibility of σ-aromaticity in an unsaturated
ring. Traditional π-aromaticity is used to describe the π-conjugation
in fully unsaturated rings; whereas σ-aro...