Abstract The aromatic odd-alternant phenalenyl anion and a number of its derivatives were prepared in order to study the perturbation of this conjugated anion by methyl and methoxy groups. The conjugated anions were studied by means of 1 H and 13 C NMR spectrometry, alkylation experiments and semi-empirical calculations. It was found that a substituent at a charged carbon atom perturbs the entire conjugated system, whereas substituents at ...