Ab initio calculations have been performed on a series of complexes formed between halogen-containing molecules and ammonia to gain a deeper insight into the nature of halogen bonding. It appears that the dihalogen molecules form the strongest halogen-bonded complexes with ammonia, followed by HOX; the charge-transfer-type contribution has been demonstrated to dominate the halogen bonding in these complexes. For the complexes involving carbon-bound halogen molecules, our calculations clearly indicate that electrostatic interactions are mainly responsible for their binding energies. Whereas the halogen-bond strength is significantly enhanced by progressive fluorine substitution, the substitution of a hydrogen atom by a methyl group in the CH(3)X...NH(3) complex weakened the halogen bonding. Moreover, remote substituent effects have also been noted in the complexes of halobenzenes with different para substituents. The influence of the hybridization state of the carbon atom bonded to the halogen atom has also been examined and the results reveal that halogen-bond strengths decrease in the order HC triple bond CX > H(2)C=CHX approximately O=CHX approximately C(6)H(5)X > CH(3)X. In addition, several excellent linear correlations have been established between the interaction energies and both the amount of charge transfer and the electrostatic potentials corresponding to an electron density of 0.002 au along the R-X axis; these correlations provide good models with which to evaluate the electron-accepting abilities of the covalently bonded halogen atoms. Finally, some positively charged halogen-bonded systems have been investigated and the effect of the charge has been discussed.
Correlations between interaction energies and various structural parameters were established to reveal the differences between hydrogen bonds and halogen bonds.
General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Queen's University Belfast Research Portal is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.