Comments on the Matters Arising article “Does φ-Aromaticity exist in prismatic {Bi6}-based clusters?”

Abstract

We read the Matters Arising article by Dariusz W. Szczepanik and Miquel Solà with interest, and recognized several misinterpretations (based on oversimplifications) of our work and also errors that results from inappropriate/insufficient methods applied in their follow-up studies. This led to erroneous statements, which the authors additionally mixed with statements on aromaticity, which does not fully comply with definitions that have been well-established, e.g., for benzene. In this comment, we outline the misinterpretations, errors, and questionable statements, thereby referring to our work and further literature to underline the facts.

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Supplementary material

Additional Tables
Additional 1c and 2c (ECP, X2C) results