The structure, properties, and nature of HArF-HOX (X = F, Cl, Br) complex: an ab initio study and an unusual short hydrogen bond

The structure and properties (geometric, energetic, electronic, spectroscopic, and thermodynamic properties) of HArF‐HOX (X = F, Cl, Br) complex have been investigated at the MP2/aug‐cc‐pVTZ level. Three types of complexes are formed through a hydrogen bond or a halogen bond. The HArF‐HOX complex is the most stable, followed by the FArH‐OHX complex, and the HArF‐XOH complex is the most unstable. The binding distance in FArH‐OHX complex is very short (1.1–1.7 Å) and is smaller than that in HArF‐HOX complex. However, the interaction strength in the former is weaker than that in the latter. Thus, an unusual short hydrogen bond is present in FArH‐OHX complex. The associated H‐Ar bond exhibits a red shift, whereas the distant one gives a blue shift. A similar result is also found for the O? H and O? X bonds. The isotropic chemical shift is negative for the associated hydrogen atom but is positive for the associated halogen atom. However, a reverse result is found for the anisotropic chemical shift. The analyses of natural bond orbital and atoms in molecules have been performed for these complexes to understand the nature and properties of hydrogen and halogen bonds. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2011     

Comparison of triel bonds with different chalcogen electron donors: Its dependence on triel donor and methyl substitution

The complexes between R₃Tr (Tr = B, Al, and Ga; R = H, F, Cl, and Br) and H₂X (X = O, S, and Se) were theoretically studied. The interaction energies of R₃Al⋯H₂X and R₃Ga⋯H₂X are consistent with the electronegativity of the halogen atom R (R ≠ H), but an opposite dependence is found for R₃B⋯H₂X. The triel bond of R₃Tr⋯H₂X is weaker for the heavier chalcogen donor. The dependence of triel bonding strength on the triel atom is complicated, depending on the nature of R and X. The methyl substitution of H₂X causes a substantial increase in the interaction energy from −5.74 kcal/mol to −22.88 kcal/mol, and its effect is relevant to the nature of Tr, X, and R groups. For the S and Se donors, the increased percentage of interaction energy is almost the same due to the methyl substitution, which is larger than that of the O analogue. In most triel-bonded complexes, electrostatic dominates and polarization has comparable contribution. However, polarization plays a dominant role in R₃B⋯ and R₃B⋯ (R = Cl and Br; R′ = H and Me).     

Intermolecular complexes of HArF and HKrF with CO

Stable linear weakly bound hydrogen-bonded complexes of HArF and HKrF with the CO molecule have been predicted by ab initio computations at the MP2/6- 311+ +G(2d,2p) level of theory. The complexes, having stabilities in the order, FArH...CO>FKrH...CO>FArH...OC>FKrH...OC are compared. They exhibit unusual blueshifts of the Ar-H (Kr-H) stretching frequency, as well as contraction of the Ar-H (Kr-H) bond, and these effects are rationalized mainly in terms of shifts in the electron density of HArF (HKrF) on complexation, caused mainly by a combination of the intermolecular electrostatic interaction, electron-electron (Pauli) and nuclear-nuclear repulsion and charge density transferred from the CO molecule to the rare-gas-containing molecule.     

Comparison of some vibrational features of FArH...Rg and FHc...Rg complexes (Rg=He, Ne, Ar, Kr)

The shift in the harmonic vibrational frequency of the ArH stretch of FArH on formation of the linear FArH...Rg complexes (Rg=He, Ne, Ar, Kr), and of the FH stretch on formation of the linear FH...Rg complexes, has been determined by ab initio computations. These shifts are in agreement with predictions from a model based on perturbation theory and involving the first and second derivatives of the interaction energy with respect to displacement of the ArH (FH) bond length from its equilibrium value in the monomer. In the FH...Rg dimers, small blue shifts were obtained for the He and Ne complexes and red shifts for those with Ar and Kr. In the FArH...Rg dimers, blue shifts were obtained for all four complexes. These vibrational characteristics are rationalized by considering the balance between the interaction energy derivatives obtained from the perturbative model. The bond length changes on complexation are also well predicted by the model. Our computations were restricted to the linear geometry since the objective was to investigate the validity of the perturbation model and to illuminate the causes of the red and blue shifts.     

Effects of Electronic Structure of Adjacent Carbon on the Strength of C─F⋯H─F Organofluorine Hydrogen Bonds

We investigate the effects of the electronic structure of carbon atom on the organofluorine hydrogen bonds, C─F⋯H─F. Our results show that we can modulate the strength of organofluorine hydrogen bonds by adjusting the volume of fluorine atom in C─F via changing the electronic structure of adjacent carbon atoms. Different with the conventional hydrogen bonds, we found that instead of carbon rehybridization and hyperconjugative effects, the magnitude of fluorine atomic volume plays important roles in determining the strength of the C─F⋯H─F organofluorine hydrogen bonds. The lone pair electrons at both the proximal and the vicinal carbon dramatically reinforce the strength of C─F⋯H─F organofluorine hydrogen bond with its interaction energy in the range of about 15–25 kcal/mol, that is, the carbanion-mediated organofluorine hydrogen bond could be very strong. Due to the high electronegativity of fluorine atom, it easily attracts the excess electron from the proximal and vicinal carbon, which results in the increase of its volume and negative charge. The enhanced volume of fluorine atom gives rise to the large polarization energy, and its enhanced negative charge favors the large electrostatic interaction, both of which substantially contribute to making the organofluorine hydrogen bonds strong. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Theoretical study on structures and vibrational spectra of M+(H2O)Ar (M = Cu,Ag, Au)

A theoretical study on the structures and vibrational spectra of M⁺(H₂O)Ar_0‐1 (M = Cu, Ag, Au) complexes was performed using ab initio method. Geometrical structures, binding energies (BEs), OH stretching vibrational frequencies, and infrared (IR) absorption intensities are investigated in detail for various isomers with Ar atom bound to different binding sites of M⁺(H₂O). CCSD(T) calculations predict that BEs are 14.5, 7.5, and 14.4 kcal/mol for Ar atom bound to the noble metal ion in M⁺(H₂O)Ar (M = Cu, Ag, Au) complexes, respectively, and the corresponding values have been computed to be 1.5, 1.3, and 2.1 kcal/mol when Ar atom attaches to a H atom of water molecule. The former structure is predicted to be more stable than the latter structure. Moreover, when compared with the M⁺(H₂O) species, tagging Ar atom to metal cation yields a minor perturbation on the IR spectra, whereas binding Ar atom to an OH site leads to a large redshift in OH stretching vibrations. The relationships between isomers and vibrational spectra are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011     

Comparison of σ-hole and π-hole tetrel bonds in complexes of borazine with TH3F and F2TO/H2TO (T = C,Si, Ge)

The complexes between borazine and TH₃F/F₂TO/H₂TO (T = C, Si, Ge) are investigated with high-level quantum chemical calculations. Borazine has three sites of negative electrostatic potential: the N atom, the ring center, and the H atom of the B H bond, whereas TH₃F and F₂TO/H₂TO provide the σ-hole and π-hole, respectively, for the tetrel bond. The N atom of borazine is the favored site for both the σ and π-hole tetrel bonds. Less-stable dimers include a σ-tetrel bond to the borazine ring center and to the BH proton. The π-hole tetrel-bonded complexes are more strongly bound than are their σ-hole counterparts. Due to the coexistence of both T···N tetrel and B···O triel bonding, the complexes of borazine with F₂TO/H₂TO (T = Si and Ge) are very stable, with interaction energies up to −108 kcal/mol. The strongly bonded complexes are accompanied by substantial net charge transfer from F₂TO/H₂TO to borazine.     

Influence of insertion of a noble gas atom on halogen bonding in H2O···XCCNgF and H3N···XCCNgF (X = Cl and Br; Ng = Ar, Kr, and Xe) complexes

The H₂O···XCCNgF and H₃N···XCCNgF (X = Cl and Br; Ng = Ar, Kr, and Xe) complexes have been studied with quantum chemical calculations at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level. The results show that the inserted noble gas atom has an enhancing effect on the strength of halogen bond, and this enhancement is weakened with the increase of noble gas atomic number. The methyl and Li substituents in the electron donor strengthen the halogen bond. The interaction energy increases from ?3.75 kcal/mol in H₃N–BrCCF complex to ?9.66 kcal/mol in H₂LiN–BrCCArF complex. These complexes have been analyzed with atoms in molecules, natural bond orbital, molecular electrostatic potentials, and energy decomposition calculations.     

Redshift and blueshift of the Ar-H vibrational stretching frequency in complexes of FArH and acetylene

Two planar hydrogen-bonded complexes of FArH and acetylene were found to be stable using second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) with 6-311++G(2d,2p) basis sets. The more stable complex involves bonding between the F atom of FArH and a H atom of acetylene, while the other isomer is a T-shaped complex with the H atom of FArH bonded to the center of the CC bond of acetylene; the zero-point energy corrected dissociation energies are 29 and 27 kJ mol(-1), respectively. Interestingly, the Ar-H harmonic vibrational stretching frequency is blueshifted in the more stable isomer and redshifted in the less stable form. The electron density rearrangement of FArH on complexation was investigated and used to explain these unusual findings.     

Metalophilic interaction in gold halide: Quantum chemical study of AuX (X = Fat)

Quantum chemical calculations of the structures, stabilities, and metalophilic interactions of AuX halides (X = F? At) at the CCSD(T) theoretical level with extended basis sets were performed. Natural bond orbital analysis showed that the present gold–halide metalophilic interactions mainly resulted from the overlap of an sp hybrid on halogen and a 6s6p5d hybrid on the Au atom. Analysis of electron density deformation showed a pronounced charge accumulation in the middle of the region between heavier X and Au, and clearly suggested the formation of covalent bond. Topological analysis of the Laplacian and total electronic energy densities at bond critical points showed the “intermediate type” character of gold–halide metalophilic interactions. Electron localization function showed the increased covalency from X = F to X = At. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A new unconventional halogen bond C?X···H?M between HCCX (X = Cl and Br) and HMH (M = Be and Mg): An ab initio study

In this article, a new type of halogen‐bonded complex YCCX···HMY (X = Cl, Br; M = Be, Mg; Y = H, F, CH₃) has been predicted and characterized at the MP2/aug‐cc‐pVTZ level. We named it as halogen‐hydride halogen bonding. In each YCCX···HMY complex, a halogen bond is formed between the positively charged X atom and the negatively charged H atom. This new kind of halogen bond has similar characteristics to the conventional halogen bond, such as the elongation of the C? X bond and the red shift of the C? X stretch frequency upon complexation. The interaction strength of this type of halogen bond is in a range of 3.34–10.52 kJ/mol, which is smaller than that of dihydrogen bond and conventional halogen bond. The nature of the electrostatic interaction in this type of halogen bond has also been unveiled by means of the natural bond orbital, atoms in molecules, and energy decomposition analyses. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2010     

Competition between halogen bond and hydrogen bond in complexes of superalkali Li3S and halogenated acetylene XCCH (X = F,Cl, Br,and I)

Complexes of superalkali Li₃S and XCCH (X = F, Cl, Br, and I) have been studied with theoretical calculations at the MP2/aug‐cc‐pVTZ level. Three types of structures are found: (A) the X atom combines with the S atom through a halogen bond; (B) the X atom interacts with the π electron of Li₃S by a π halogen bond; (C) the H atom combines with the S atom through a hydrogen bond. For A and B, a heavier halogen atom makes the interaction stronger, while for C, the change of interaction energy is not obvious, showing a small dependence on the nature of the X atom in HCCX. A is more stable than B and their difference in stability decreases as X varies from Cl to I. For the F and Cl complexes, A is weaker than C, however, the former is stronger than the latter in the Br and I complexes. The above three types of interactions have been analyzed by means of electron localization function, electron density difference, and energy decomposition, and the results show that they have similar nature and features with conventional interactions. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Application of polarizable ellipsoidal force field model to pnicogen bonds

Noncovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonds and halogen bonds, are frequently used in drug designing and crystal engineering. Recently, a novel noncovalent pnicogen bonds have been identified as an important driving force in crystal structures with similar bonding mechanisms as hydrogen bond and halogen bond. Although the pnicogen bond is highly anisotropic, the pnicogen bond angles range from 160° to 180° due to the complicated substituent effects. To understand the anisotropic characters of pnicogen bond, a modification of the polarizable ellipsoidal force field (PEff) model previously used to define halogen bonds was proposed in this work. The potential energy surfaces (PESs) of mono‐ and polysubstituted PH₃–NH₃ complexes were calculated at CCSD(T), MP2, and density functional theory levels and were used to examine the modified PEff model. The results indicate that the modified PEff model can precisely characterize pnicogen bond. The root mean squared error of PES obtained with PEff model is less than 0.5 kcal/mol, compared with MP2 results. In addition, the modified PEff model may be applied to other noncovalent bond interactions, which is important to understand the role of intermolecular interactions in the self‐assembly structures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Theoretical study on the interactions of halogen‐bonds and pnicogen‐bonds in phosphine derivatives with Br2, BrCl,and BrF

The MP2 ab initio quantum chemistry methods were utilized to study the halogen‐bond and pnicogen‐bond system formed between PH₂X (X = Br, CH₃, OH, CN, NO₂, CF₃) and BrY (Y = Br, Cl, F). Calculated results show that all substituent can form halogen‐bond complexes while part substituent can form pnicogen‐bond complexes. Traditional, chlorine‐shared and ion‐pair halogen‐bonds complexes have been found with the different substituent X and Y. The halogen‐bonds are stronger than the related pnicogen‐bonds. For halogen‐bonds, strongly electronegative substituents which are connected to the Lewis acid can strengthen the bonds and significantly influenced the structures and properties of the compounds. In contrast, the substituents which connected to the Lewis bases can produce opposite effects. The interaction energies of halogen‐bonds are 2.56 to 32.06 kcal·mol^?1; The strongest halogen‐bond was found in the complex of PH₂OH???BrF. The interaction energies of pnicogen‐bonds are in the range 1.20 to 2.28 kcal·mol^?1; the strongest pnicogen‐bond was found in PH₂Br???Br₂ complex. The charge transfer of lp(P) ? σ*(Br? Y), lp(F) ? σ*(Br? P), and lp(Br) ? σ*(X? P) play important roles in the formation of the halogen‐bonds and pnicogen‐bonds, which lead to polarization of the monomers. The polarization caused by the halogen‐bond is more obvious than that by the pnicogen‐bond, resulting in that some halogen‐bonds having little covalent character. The symmetry adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) energy decomposition analysis showes that the halogen‐bond and pnicogen‐bond interactions are predominantly electrostatic and dispersion, respectively.     

No-pair bonding in coinage metal dimers

High-level ab initio calculations at the coupled cluster with single and double substitutions and perturbative treatment of triple substitutions, CCSD(T), level of theory have been carried out for the dimers of coinage metal atoms Cu, Ag, and Au in the ground 1Sigma(g)+ state and in the excited 3Sigma(u)+ state. All of the calculations have been carried out with the inclusion of scalar-relativistic effects via the normalized elimination of the small component (NESC) method. For the dimers in the triplet state, nonzero bond dissociation energies are obtained which vary from 1.3 kcal/mol for 3Cu2 to 4.6 kcal/mol for 3Au2. Taking into account that, in bulky high-spin copper clusters, the bond dissociation energy per atom increases steeply to the value of ca. 19 kcal/mol, the results obtained in the present paper suggest that the bond dissociation energy per atom in high-spin gold clusters may reach extremely high values exceeding 20 kcal/mol thus becoming comparable to the usual bonding due to the spin-pairing mechanism.     

Thermodynamic, kinetic, and computational study of heavier chalcogen (S, Se, and Te) terminal multiple bonds to molybdenum, carbon, and phosphorus

Enthalpies of chalcogen atom transfer to Mo(N[t-Bu]Ar)3, where Ar = 3,5-C6H3Me2, and to IPr (defined as bis-(2,6-isopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene) have been measured by solution calorimetry leading to bond energy estimates (kcal/mol) for EMo(N[t-Bu]Ar)3 (E = S, 115; Se, 87; Te, 64) and EIPr (E = S, 102; Se, 77; Te, 53). The enthalpy of S-atom transfer to PMo(N[ t-Bu]Ar) 3 generating SPMo(N[t-Bu]Ar)3 has been measured, yielding a value of only 78 kcal/mol. The kinetics of combination of Mo(N[t-Bu]Ar)3 with SMo(N[t-Bu]Ar)3 yielding (mu-S)[Mo(N[t-Bu]Ar)3]2 have been studied, and yield activation parameters Delta H (double dagger) = 4.7 +/- 1 kcal/mol and Delta S (double dagger) = -33 +/- 5 eu. Equilibrium studies for the same reaction yielded thermochemical parameters Delta H degrees = -18.6 +/- 3.2 kcal/mol and Delta S degrees = -56.2 +/- 10.5 eu. The large negative entropy of formation of (mu-S)[Mo(N[t-Bu]Ar)3]2 is interpreted in terms of the crowded molecular structure of this complex as revealed by X-ray crystallography. The crystal structure of Te-atom transfer agent TePCy3 is also reported. Quantum chemical calculations were used to make bond energy predictions as well as to probe terminal chalcogen bonding in terms of an energy partitioning analysis.     

Cocrystal Assembled by 1,2-Diiodotetrafluorobenzene and Acridine via C-I…N Halogen Bond and Tr-hole…F Bonds

The concepts on o-hole and ~-hole bonds are suggested. A cocrystal with repeated 8-F-atom unit as basic struc- tural motif is assembled based on bifurcated C-I…N…I-C halogen/σ-hole bond and antiparallel double π-hole… F bonds by 1,2-diiodotetrafluorobenzene and acridine and characterized well by XRD, powder XRD and solid 19F NMR, etc. Also the calculated interaction energies are -26.8 and -31.5 kJ/mol for bifurcated C-I…N sp……2 halogen bonds, and -14.3 kJ/mol for a pair of n-hole…F bonds. In this system C-I…N halogen bond has stronger competitive ability to C-I…π halogen bond due to stronger basicity of N than π-system in acridine. The combination of the halogen/σ-hole and π-hole bonds or together with other weak interactions could play a key role in assembling function materials, molecular recognition and design of drugs and so on.     

After the electronic field: Structure,bonding, and the first hyperpolarizability of HArF

In this work, we add different strength of external electric field (E_ext) along molecule axis (Z‐axis) to investigate the electric field induced effect on HArF structure. The H‐Ar bond is the shortest at E_ext = ?189 × 10^?4 and the Ar‐F bond show shortest value at E_ext = 185 × 10^?4 au. Furthermore, the wiberg bond index analyses show that with the variation of HArF structure, the covalent bond H‐Ar shows downtrend (ranging from0.79 to 0.69) and ionic bond Ar‐F shows uptrend (ranging from 0.04 to 0.17). Interestingly, the natural bond orbital analyses show that the charges of F atom range from ?0.961 to ?0.771 and the charges of H atoms range from 0.402 to 0.246. Due to weakened charge transfer, the first hyperpolarizability (β_tot) can be modulated from 4078 to 1087 au. On the other hand, make our results more useful to experimentalists, the frequency‐dependent first hyperpolarizabilities were investigated by the coupled perturbed Hartree‐Fork method. We hope that this work may offer a new idea for application of noble‐gas hydrides. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Some measures for making halogen bonds stronger than hydrogen bonds in H2CS-HOX (X = F, Cl, and Br) complexes

The properties and applications of halogen bonds are dependent greatly on their strength. In this paper, we suggested some measures for enhancing the strength of the halogen bond relative to the hydrogen bond in the H(2)CS-HOX (X = F, Cl, and Br) system by means of quantum chemical calculations. It has been shown that with comparison to H(2)CO, the S electron donor in H(2)CS results in a smaller difference in strength for the Cl halogen bond and the corresponding hydrogen bond, and the Br halogen bond is even stronger than the hydrogen bond. The Li atom in LiHCS and methyl group in MeHCS cause an increase in the strength of halogen bonding and hydrogen bonding, but the former makes the halogen bond stronger and the latter makes the hydrogen bond stronger. In solvents, the halogen bond in the Br system is strong enough to compete with the hydrogen bond. The interaction nature and properties in these complexes have been analyzed with the natural bond orbital theory.