RESUMEN

The local response to an external magnetic field normal to the molecular plane of naphthalene and anthracene was investigated via current density and magnetic shielding density maps. The Biot-Savart law shows that the deshielding caused by pi-ring currents in naphthalene is stronger for alpha- than for beta-protons due to geometrical factors. The shielding tensor of the carbon nuclei in both molecules is strongly anisotropic and its out-of-plane component determines the up-field chemical shift of (13)C in nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. The pi-ring currents flowing beyond the C-skeleton in front of a probe carbon nucleus, and on remote parts of the molecular perimeter, yield positive contributions to the out-of-plane component of carbon shielding as big as approximately 10-15% of the total values. Near Hartree-Fock estimates of magnetizability and magnetic shielding at the nuclei fully consistent with the current model are reported.