Are Additional Varieties of Aromaticity Achievable?
[caption id="attachment_7679" align="alignright" width="380"] A stick model of the aromatic molecule, benzene.[/caption] I am a retired chemist. I have no laboratory, and I have no close affiliations, but I do retain a brain. One of my favorite topics is aromaticity. Organic chemistry, essentially the study of carbon chemistry, features aliphatic compounds and aromatic compounds. Aromatic compounds, even being constructed from alternating (conjugated) double bonds, possess resistance against undergoing addition reactions, tending toward substitution reactions instead. An Idea Begins to Take Shape Realizing this, I began to wonder about a kind of aromaticity that might utilize triple bonds, rather than double bonds. However carbon-carbon triple bonds force other atoms to take positions along the same axis as the triple bond. A ring created from alternating single and triple carbon-carbon bonds would…