Talk:Cycloparaphenylene

Bonding structure

The article should describe the bonding structure of these molecules. Is the whole hoop aromatic, or just the benzenes? In the "resonance" way of describing such molecules, I could imagine a resonance between three configurations: the two of benzene, with single bonds between the rings, and a third one with all rings in a 1,4-benzoquinone configuration with double bonds between them. Another view would be bonds of 4/3 valence between the rings and on the tilted sided of the rings, and 5/3 on the horizontal sides. Does that make sense? --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 07:31, 7 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Shortest nanotube?

Is it proper to describe these compounds as "the shortest nanotubes"?
An armchair nanotube consists of stacked closed paths of the armchair type, with all bonds being of valence 4/3. So the shortest (n,n) armchair nanotube should be just one ring of 4n carbons with alternating double and single bonds, like cyclooctatetraene (COT). Indeed, the geometry of (COT) is very close to that of an armchair loop of a (2,2) nanotube. By stacking molecules of COT with simple translation along its axis, and removing the hydrogens, one would have that nanotube...
The same theoretical assembly applied to benzene would yield a (3,0) zigzag nanotube instead...
--Jorge Stolfi (talk) 07:47, 7 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]