NMR studies of bond order in distorted aromatic systems

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ja00177a013

The ^4J_H-C=C-Me coupling constant has been previously established_1,2 as a probe of bond order. This has now been used to examine the bond orders of compounds containing severely distorted benzene nuclei. In the case of 3,4-di-tert-butyltoluene, no electronic distortions in the aromatic ring can be detected by this method. A series of moderately to severely distorted paracyclophanes show no perturbation of electronic structure, with the possible exception of 8-methyl[6]paracyclophane, which exhibits a barely significant deviation from unstrained values. These conclusions are supported by the results of SCF-MO calculations.