Cyclobutadiene (CBD) displays aromaticity in the lowest-lying triplet excited state (T1) according to Baird's 4n electron rule. Hence, antiaromatic CBD in the T1 state has never been reported so far. Here we demonstrate via density functional theory (DFT) calculations that the CBD ring could possess dual antiaromaticity in the lowest singlet state (S0) and T1 states (termed as adaptive antiaromaticity), which is supported by various aromaticity indices including NICS, ACID, ΔBL, ELF and ISE.

The heavier cyclobutadiene analogue 2,4-digerma-1,3-diphosphacyclobutadiene ([L12Ge2P2], 4; L1 = CH{(CMe)(2,6-iPr2C6H3N)}2), featuring a planar Ge2P2 four-membered ring, has been synthesized via the elimination of carbon monoxide from the corresponding phosphaketenyl germylene [L1GePCO] (2) under UV irradiation.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.organomet.6b00187