Abstract
The aromaticities of azines relative to benzene have been estimated by fusion with 15,16-dimethyldihydropyrene. Chemical shift data for the azine-fused dihydropyrenes (calculated at GIAO HF/6-31G*//B3LYP/6-31+G*) were used to estimate the reduction in the dihydropyrene nucleus aromaticity. Choice of the saturated reference model was quite crucial in reliable estimation of aromaticity. Reference models with partial unsaturation at azine (21,23,25-32) gave better estimate of aromaticity than the parent dimethyldihydropyrene. Aromaticities of azines through chemical shift data and geometric parameter analysis were found to be 90-100% to that of benzene, highly consistent with the aromaticity estimation by nucleus independent chemical shift((0)zz) calculations. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.