Crown compounds for anions. The nature of chemical bonds in the complexes of halide anions with cyclic trimeric perfluoro-o-phenylenemercury and some of its analogs

Geometries and electronic structures of the complexes of halide anions with cyclic trimerico-phenylenemercury, (o-C₆H₄Hg)₃, perfluoro-o-phenylenemercury, (o-C₆F₄Hg)₃, vinylenemercury, (C₂H₂Hg)₃, and perfluorovinylenemercury, (C₂F₂Hg)₃, were modelled by the MNDO method. Calculations were performed for L-X]^– semisandwich complexes, X-L-X]^2– bipyramidal complexes, and L-X-L]^– sandwich complexes (where X=Hal,L is a mercury-containing macrocycle). Based on the results of calculations, we concluded that it was advantageous to describe the chemical bonding between halide anions and mercury-containing macrocycles in terms of generalized chemical bonds, which were successfully used for -complexes of transition metals. In the L-X]^– semisandwich complexes, the halide anion and the metallacycle are involved in the formation of three generalized chemical bonds: one headlight-shaped -bond and two two-lobe -bonds. In the X-L-X]^2– bipyramidal complexes, each halide anion forms three generalized chemical bonds with the macrocycle. It is possible because the macrocycleL has unoccupied molecular orbitals suitable for the formation of such bonds; these MOs consist mainly of the orbitals of mercury atoms directed toward both the upper and lower halogen atoms. In the L-X-L]^– sandwich complexes, the halide anion cannot be bonded to each ringvia three bonds, and, hence, an unsymmetrical structure is formed, in which the rings are located at different distances from the central atom: the L-X]^– semisandwich complex solvated by macrocycleL.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 6, pp. 1035–1042, June, 1995.The authors are grateful to V. I. Faustov for valuable remarks.This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 93-03-18342).