While the tetrahedral face of methane has an electron rich centre and can act as a hydrogen bond acceptor, substitution of one of its hydrogens with some electron withdrawing group (such as -F/OH) can make the opposite face electron deficient. Electrostatic potential calculations confirm this and high level quantum calculations show interactions between the positive face of methanol/methyl fluoride and electron rich centers of other molecules such as H2O. Analysis of the wave functions of atoms in molecules shows the presence of an unusual C···Y interaction, which could be called 'carbon bonding'. NBO analysis and vibrational frequency shifts confirm the presence of this interaction. Given the properties of alkyl groups bonded to electronegative elements in biological molecules, such interactions could play a significant role, which is yet to be recognized. This and similar interactions could give an enthalpic contribution to what is called the 'hydrophobic interactions'.

High-level ab initio calculations have been used to study the interactions between the CH3 group of CH3X (X = F, Cl, Br, CN) molecules and π-electrons. These interactions are important because of the abundance of both the CH3 groups and π-electrons in biological systems. Complexes between C2H4/C2H2 and CH3X molecules have been used as model systems. Various theoretical methods such as atoms in molecules theory, reduced density gradient analysis, and natural bond orbital analysis have been used to discern these interactions. These analyses show that the interaction of the π-electrons with the CH3X molecules leads to the formation of X-C···π carbon bonds. Similar complexes with other tetrel molecules, SiH3X and GeH3X, have also been considered.

The structure of the Ar···propargyl alcohol (Ar···PA) complex is determined from the rotational spectra of the parent complex and its two deuterated isotopologues, namely Ar···PA-D(OD) and Ar···PA-D(CD). The spectra confirm a geometry in which PA exists in the gauche form with Ar located in between -OH and -C≡C-H groups. All a, b and c types of transitions show small splitting due to some large-amplitude motion dominated by C-OH torsion, as in the monomer. Splittings in a- and b-type transitions are of the order of a few kilohertz, whereas splitting in the c-type transitions is relatively larger (0.9-2.6 MHz) and decreases in the order Ar···PA>Ar···PA-D(CD)>Ar···PA-D(OD). The assignments are well supported by ab initio calculations. Atoms in molecules (AIM) and electrostatic potential calculations are used to explore the nature of the interactions in this complex. AIM calculations not only reveal the expected O-H···Ar and π···Ar interactions in the Ar···gauche-PA complex, but also novel C···Ar (of CH2OH group) and O-H···Ar interactions in the Ar···trans-PA complex. Similar interactions are also present in the Ar···methanol complex.

Chemical reactions at ultralow temperatures are of fundamental importance to primordial molecular evolution as it occurs on icy mantles of dust nanoparticles or on ultracold water clusters in dense interstellar clouds. As we show, studying reactions in a stepwise manner in ultracold helium nanodroplets by mass-selective infrared (IR) spectroscopy provides an avenue to mimic these “stardust conditions” in the laboratory. In our joint experimental/theoretical study, in which we successively add H2O molecules to HCl, we disclose a unique IR fingerprint at 1337 cm−1 that heralds hydronium (H3O+) formation and, thus, acid dissociation generating solvated protons. In stark contrast, no reaction is observed when reversing the sequence by allowing HCl to interact with preformed small embryonic ice-like clusters. Our ab initio simulations demonstrate that not only reaction stoichiometry but also the reaction sequence needs to be explicitly considered to rationalize ultracold chemistry.

In this discussion, we show that a static definition of a 'bond' is not viable by looking at a few examples for both inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonding. This follows from our earlier work (Goswami and Arunan, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2009, 11, 8974) which showed a practical way to differentiate 'hydrogen bonding' from 'van der Waals interaction'. We report results from ab initio and atoms in molecules theoretical calculations for a series of Rg∙∙∙HX complexes (Rg=He/Ne/Ar and X=F/Cl/Br) and ethane-1,2-diol. Results for the Rg∙∙∙HX/DX complexes show that Rg∙∙∙DX could have a 'deuterium bond' even when Rg∙∙∙HX is not 'hydrogen bonded', according to the practical criterion given by Goswami and Arunan. Results for ethane-1,2-diol show that an 'intra-molecular hydrogen bond' can appear during a normal mode vibration which is dominated by the OO stretching, though a 'bond' is not found in the equilibrium structure. This dynamical 'bond' formation may nevertheless be important in ensuring the continuity of electron density across a molecule. In the former case, a vibration 'breaks' an existing bond and in the later case, a vibration leads to 'bond' formation. In both cases, the molecule/complex stays bound irrespective of what happens to this 'hydrogen bond'. Both these cases push the borders on the recent IUPAC recommendation on hydrogen bonding (Arunan et al. Pure. Appl. Chem. 2011, 83 1637) and justify the inclusive nature of the definition.