Photoswitching neutral homoaromatic hydrocarbons

The identification and characterization of homoaromatic compounds bearing an interrupted -system are fundamental challenges for the understanding of electronic interactions in organic molecules. This is further hampered by the fact that no stable neutral homoaromatic hydrocarbon is known. We present the preparation of a new class of neutral homoaromatic compounds, which are supported by experimental evidence (ring current observed by NMR spectroscopy, equalization of bond lengths through X-ray structure analysis) as well as computational analysis (NICS and ACID). Furthermore, we show that one homoaromatic hydrocarbon is a photoswitch through a reversible photochemical [1,11] sigmatropic rearrangement. We provide evidence that the local 6 homoaromatic state vanishes upon photoswitching to produce a purely global 10 homoaromatic state. These results of stable and accessible homoaromatic neutral hydrocarbons and their photoswitching behaviour provide new insights for the understanding and study of homoconjugative interactions in organic molecules, and for the design of new responsive molecular materials.