How does aromaticity play out in carbon nanohoops?

Question

Within the family of carbon phanes,one that has caught my attention is cycloparaphenylene. Considering that in practice it is just a segmented piece of a carbon nanotube, is must be aromatic in nature.

Yet it is distinct from carbon nanotubes, how does its aromatic nature differ from carbon nanotubes?

In a related topic: How would an increase in the diameter of a carbon nanohoop affects its aromaticity?

Note: Here is a cross-section of a carbon nanotube, which is in the shape of cycloparaphenylene.

Aromaticity is a tough subject. This molecule is quite special, but it reminds me more of a biphenyl than a nanotube. — Martin - マーチン, Aug 23 '22 at 18:31

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 24 '22 at 00:13

You basically have a series of rings chained together. In such structures, if the individual rings can all have optimal electron counts for aromaticity then the aromatic coupling will probably be localized to the individual rings. To get aromatic coupling globally around the hoop you may need to introduce some charge, altering the electron count.

You may want to study this question and the impact of electron count on dibenzo-cyclooctatetraene in the answer.

How does aromaticity play out in carbon nanohoops?

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