| Abstract: | Halogen bonding is a noncovalent interaction between electrophilic halogen substituents and Lewis bases. Its overall interaction energy is composed of several contributions, namely electrostatics, charge‐transfer and dispersion. This article describes the use of halogen bonding in organocatalysis featuring a test reaction in which the halogen‐based catalyst abstracts chloride from the substrate to form a reactive carbenium species. Other potential modes of activation were ruled out be several comparison experiments. |
