Aromaticity is a fundamental chemical concept of ever-increasing diversity. According to Hückel’s and Baird’s rules, cyclic conjugated species with 4n+2 π-electrons are aromatic in the singlet electronic ground state (S0) and antiaromatic in the lowest triplet state (T1), and vice-versa. Thus, species with aromaticity in both states have not yet been reported.

Aromaticity, a highly stabilizing feature of molecules with delocalized electrons in closed circuits, is generally restricted to ‘Hückel’ systems with 4n+2 mobile electrons. Although the Möbius concept extends the principle of aromaticity to 4n mobile electron species, the rare known examples have complex, twisted topologies whose extension is unlikely. Here we report the realization of osmapentalenes, the first planar Möbius aromatic complexes with 16 and 18 valence electron transition metals.