Computational study of hydrogen bonding interaction between formamide and nitrosyl hydride

The hydrogen bonding interaction of formamide–nitrosyl hydride complex has been investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and ab initio method. The natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis and atom in molecules (AIM) theory were applied to understand the nature of the interaction. Two stable geometries are found on the potential energy surface, a six-membered cyclic structure of complex A and a seven-membered cyclic structure of complex B, characterized by AIM analysis. Complex A is less stable than complex B. It is confirmed that there are contractions of CH (compared with the monomer HCONH₂), NH bonds (compared with the monomer HNO) and the corresponding stretching vibrational frequencies are blue-shifted, while there is an elongation of the NH bond and the corresponding stretching vibrational frequency is red-shifted, relative to those of the monomer HCONH₂. From NBO analysis, it is evident that the electron densities in the σ^* (CH) and σ^*(NH) of the complex A are less than those of the monomers HCONH₂ and HNO, which strengthen CH and NH bonds. Furthermore, the increases in s-characters of X also strengthen XH bonds.