Aromaticity, as a classical and fundamental concept in chemistry, can enhance thermodynamic stability. In sharp contrast, a previous study showed that antiaromaticity rather than aromaticity can enhance the radical stability of α-methyl heterocyclic compounds. Here, we demonstrate a similar antiaromaticity-promoted radical stability when the methyl group is replaced by five-membered (alkyl)(amino)cyclics (AACs). More interestingly, when an AAC is fused with an antiaromatic ring, the radical stability could be either reduced or enhanced, depending on the spin population.

1H-azirine, a highly reactive, antiaromatic, and unstable tautomer of the aromatic, stable, and (sometimes) isolable 2H-azirine, is stabilized, both thermodynamically and kinetically, via an unprecedented route, where the latter serves as the precursor–exploiting electronic and steric elements. Our density functional theory results invite experimentalists to realize isolable 1H-azirine.

Activation of thermodynamically stable and kinetically inert dinitrogen (N2) has been a great challenge due to a significantly strong triple bond. Recently, the experimental study on the N2 activation by boron species, a highly reactive two-coordinated borylene, broke through the limitation of traditional strategy of N2 activation by metal species. Still, the study on metal-free N2 activation remains undeveloped.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture has attracted considerable attention from both experimental and theoretical chemists. In comparison, Carbon disulfide (CS2) activation is less developed. Here, we carry out a thorough comparative density functional theory study to examine the reaction mechanisms of CS2 activation by five-membered heterocycles-bridged P/N frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs).

Aromaticity and hyperconjugation are two fundamental concepts in organic chemistry. By combination of the two concepts together, the resulting hyperconjugative aromaticity has attracted considerable attention from both theoretical and computational chemists. However, previous studies are mainly focused on the main group chemistry. For the hyperconjugative aromaticity in the transition metal chemistry, the studies are limited to groups 10 and 11.

Pentafulvenes are dipolar hydrocarbons since they shift their π-electrons to achieve Hückel aromaticity and thus the electron donating groups at the exocyclic position can enhance their aromaticity. Silapentafulvenes are analogues of pentafulvene formed by the replacement of the carbon atoms at the exocyclic CC double bond with a silicon atom in pentafulvene. It remains unclear how the aromaticity of 5-silapentafulvenes and 6-silapentafulvenes can be changed due to the polarization of the CSi double bond.

The electronic and structural features of (oxo)manganese(V) corroles and their catalyzed oxygen atom transfers to thioanisole in different spin states have been investigated by the B3LYP functional calculations. Calculations show that these corrole-based oxidants and their complexes with thioanisole generally have the singlet ground state, and their triplet forms are also accessible in consideration of the spin–orbit coupling interaction.