The nature and energy characteristics of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in crystals

The review concerns the results of systematic X-ray diffraction studies of the electron density distribution in the crystals of compounds with strong intramolecular hydrogen bonds N-H...O, O-H...O, O-H...N, and N-H...S. The advantages of the topological analysis of the electron density distribution function in the analysis of the nature and estimation of the H-bond energies directly from experimental data are discussed. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 1–14, January, 2006.