In this study the recently developed electron density of delocalized bonds (EDDB) is used to define a new measure of aromaticity in molecular rings. The relationships between bond-length alternation, electron delocalization and diatropicity of the induced ring current are investigated for a test set of representative molecular rings by means of correlation and principal component analyses involving the most popular aromaticity descriptors based on structural, electronic, and magnetic criteria. Additionally, a qualitative comparison is made between EDDB and the magnetically induced ring-current density maps from the ipsocentric approach for a series of linear acenes. Special emphasis is given to the comparative study of the description of cyclic delocalization of electrons in a wide range of organic aromatics in terms of the kekulean multicenter index KMCI and the newly proposed EDDB^k index.

Numerous studies on nitro group properties are associated with its high electron-withdrawing ability, by means of both resonance and inductive effect. The substituent effect of the nitro group may be well described using either traditional substituent constants or characteristics based on quantum chemistry, i.e., cSAR, SESE, and pEDA/sEDA models. Interestingly, the cSAR descriptor allows to describe the electron-attracting properties of the nitro group regardless of the position and the type of system. Analysis of classical and reverse substituent effects of the nitro group in various systems indicates strongpi-electron interactions with electron-donating substituents due to the resonance effect. This significantly affects thepi-electron delocalization of the aromatic ring decreasing the aromatic character, evidenced clearly by HOMA values. Use of the pEDA/sEDA model allows to measure the population of electrons transferred from the ring to the nitro group.

In this article, we address the role of the long‐range exchange corrections in description of the cyclic delocalization of electrons in aromatic systems at the density functional theory level. A test set of diversified monocyclic and polycyclic aromatics is used in benchmark calculations involving various exchange‐correlation functionals. A special emphasis is given to the problem of local aromaticity in acenes, which has been a subject of long‐standing debate in the literature. The presented results indicate that the noncorrected exchange‐correlation functionals significantly overestimate cyclic delocalization of electrons in heteroaromatics and aromatic systems with fused rings, which in the case of acenes leads to conflicting local aromaticity predictions from different criteria.