Hückel and Möbius Aromaticity in Charged Sigma Complexes.

In sigma complexes, intermediates in nucleophilic and electrophilic aromatic substitution and other reactions, delocalization in the aromatic ring is formally disrupted. Unexpectedly, computational evidence is presented that favorable processes contain aromatic sigma complexes. Tetracoordinated carbon therein surprisingly employs orbitals that are more similar to sp2 than to sp3 hybrids in sigma bonds with adjacent ring atoms. Both leaving groups and nucleo- or electrophiles may donate electrons to the π-system depending on the availability of p-type orbitals to fulfill Hückel (4N+2) or Möbius (4N) rules of aromaticity in analogy to conjugated transition-metal metallacycles.