The affinities of bi-and polycyclic aromatic compounds for nitrosonium ion (A NO +) were calculated at the RI-MP2/L1 and DFT/PBE/3z levels of theory. Both methods gave generally similar geometric parameters of nitrosonium complexes. The formation of pincer complexes in which the NO + ion is linked to two aromatic rings is more energetically favorable than the formation of analogous complexes through external binding of NO + to one aromatic ring. Linear correlations were found between the calculated A NO + values of aromatic compounds and experimental equilibrium constants for the reactions of these compounds with nitrosonium ion in solution. Structural peculiarities of the examined nitrosonium complexes are discussed.Nitrosonium complexes derived from bi-and polycyclic aromatic compounds attract attention of organic chemists over many years . Interest in such complexes has increased since nitrosonium ion has been shown to participate in the formation of supramolecular structures possessing aromatic fragments [3-6, 8, 13-21, 23-27]. Such nitrosonium complexes can act as NO + containers. Reduction of NO + gives NO molecule [21,23] which is known to play an important role in a number of physiological processes [30][31][32]. It is presumed that nitrosonium ion is responsible for neurotoxic and neuroprotective action of nitrogen oxide [33,34] and is involved in reactions leading to DNA cross-linking [35,36].The goal of the present work was to examine by theoretical methods the effect of structural factors on complex formation of NO + cation with bi-and polycyclic aromatic compounds and reveal structural peculiarities of nitrosonium complexes thus formed. As subjects for the study we selected the following aromatic compounds: bis(2,3,4,5-tetramethylphenyl)methane (Ia), bis-(3,4,5,6-tetramethylpyridin-2-yl)methane (Ib), (Z)-3,4-bis(2,3,4,5,6-pentamethylphenyl)hex-3-ene (II), 2,3-bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)bicyclo[2.2.2]-oct-2-ene (III), 2,3-bis(2,3,4,5,6-pentamethylphenyl)-bicyclo[2.2.2]oct-2-ene (IV), and polycyclic compounds V-IX. These compounds were selected, taking into account availability of spectral and X-ray diffraction data in support of formation of the corresponding nitrosonium complexes, as well as of equilibrium constants for their reactions with nitrosonium ion in solution (K eq ) [7-10, 15, 37, 38].It was found previously that the RI-MP2/L1 and DFT/PBE/3z quantum-chemical methods give similar geometric parameters of nitrosonium complexes derived from benzene and its derivatives, as well as similar relative affinity series of these compounds to nitrosonium ion [39]; therefore, we used the above methods in the present work. DFT/PBE/3z calculations of structures with large number of atoms take much shorter time (by several orders of magnitude) as compared to RI-MP2/L1.The optimized structures of nitrosonium complexes of polycyclic compounds V-NO + -VIII-NO + are similar to those of benzene derivatives (Fig.