An insight into CH···N hydrogen bond and stability of the complexes formed by trihalomethanes with ammonia and its monohalogenated derivatives

A theoretical study of the C?H···N hydrogen bond in the interactions of trihalomethanes CHX₃ (X = F, Cl, Br) with ammonia and its halogen derivatives NH₂Y (Y = F, Cl, Br) has been carried out thoroughly. The complexes are quite stable, and their stability increases in going from CHF₃ to CHCl₃ then to CHBr₃ when Y keeps unchanged. With the same CHX₃ proton donor, enhancement of the gas phase basicity of NH₂Y strengthens stability of the CHX₃···NH₂Y complex. The C?H···N hydrogen bond strength is directly proportional to the increase of proton affinity (PA) at N site of NH₂Y and the decrease of deprotonation enthalpy (DPE) of C?H bond in CHX₃. The CHF₃ primarily appears to favor blue shift while the red‐shift is referred to the CHBr₃. The blue‐ or red‐shift of CHCl₃ strongly depends on PA at N site of NH₂Y. We suggest the ratio of DPE/PA as a factor to predict which type of hydrogen bond is observed upon complexation. The SAPT2+ results show that all C?H···N interactions in the complexes are electrostatically driven regardless of the type of hydrogen bond, between 48% and 61% of the total attractive energy, and partly contributed by both induction and dispersion energies.