The hydrogen bond (HB), arguably the most important non-covalent interaction in chemistry, is getting renewed attention particularly in materials engineering. We address herein HB non-additive features by examining different structures of the water hexamer (cage, prism, book, bag and ring). To that end, we rely on the interacting quantum atoms (IQA) topological energy partition, an approach that has been successfully used to study similar effects in smaller water clusters (see Chem. - Eur. J., 19, 14304). Our IQA interaction energies, , are used to classify the strength of HBs in terms of the single/double character of the donor and acceptor H2O molecules involved in the interaction. The strongest hydrogen bonds on this new scale entail double donors and acceptors that show larger values of than those observed in homodromic cycles, paradigms of cooperative effects. Importantly, this means that besides the traditional HB anticooperativity ascribed to double acceptors and donors, the occurrence of these species is also related to HB strengthening. Overall, we hope that the results of this research will lead to a further understanding of the HB non-additivity in intramolecular and intermolecular interactions.

The cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters (H2 O)n (n=3-6) have been studied by using the partition of the electronic energy in accordance with the interacting quantum atoms (IQA) approach. The IQA energy splitting is complemented by a topological analysis of the electron density (ρ(r)) compliant with the quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) and the calculation of electrostatic interactions by using one- and two-electron integrals, thereby avoiding convergence issues inherent to a multipolar expansion. The results show that the cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters arise from a compromise between: 1) the deformation energy (i.e., the energy necessary to modify the electron density and the configuration of the nuclei of the isolated water molecules to those within the water clusters), and 2) the interaction energy (Eint ) of these contorted molecules in (H2 O)n . Whereas the magnitude of both deformation and interaction energies is enhanced as water molecules are added to the system, the augmentation of the latter becomes dominant when the size of the cluster is increased. In addition, the electrostatic, classic, and exchange components of Eint for a pair of water molecules in the cluster (H2 O)n-1 become more attractive when a new H2 O unit is incorporated to generate the system (H2 O)n with the last-mentioned contribution being consistently the most important part of Eint throughout the hydrogen bonds under consideration. This is opposed to the traditional view, which regards hydrogen bonding in water as an electrostatically driven interaction. Overall, the trends of the delocalization indices, δ(Ω,Ω'), the QTAIM atomic charges, the topology of ρ(r), and the IQA results altogether show how polarization, charge transfer, electrostatics, and covalency contribute to the cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters. It is our hope that the analysis presented in this paper could offer insight into the different intra- and intermolecular interactions present in hydrogen-bonded systems.

This work provides a novel interpretation of elementary processes of photophysical relevance from the standpoint of the electron density using simple model reactions. These include excited states of H taken as a prototype for a covalent bond, excimer formation of He to analyze non-covalent interactions, charge transfer by an avoided crossing of electronic states in LiF and conical interesections involved in the intramolecular scrambling in C H . The changes of the atomic and interaction energy components along the potential energy profiles are described by the interacting quantum atoms approach and the quantum theory of atoms in molecules. Additionally, the topological analysis of one- and two-electron density functions is used to explore basic reaction mechanisms involving excited and degenerate states in connection with the virial theorem. This real space approach allows to describe these processes in a unified way, showing its versatility and utility in the study of chemical systems in excited states. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Title: The nature of resonance-assisted hydrogen bonds: a quantum chemical topology perspectiveThis work addresses the nature of Resonance Assisted Hydrogen Bonds (RAHBs) by considering malonaldehyde whose H-bonded (closed) and non H-bonded (open) conformations are represented in the bottom and top of the seesaws respectively. Although delocalization indices are more uniform in the closed form (seesaw in the left), the number of delocalized electrons diminish on RAHB formation. The interaction is characterized by an increase/decrease in the intra-atomic/inter-atomic exchange energies as schematized with sparks in the highlighted seesaw in the right. The artwork is due to Mr Víctor Duarte Alaniz. indicate that the p-conjugated bonds allow for a larger adjustment of electron density throughout the H-bonded system as compared with non-conjugated carbonyl molecules. This rearrangement of charge distribution is a response to the electric field due to the H atom involved in the hydrogen bonding of the considered compounds. As opposed to the usual description of RAHB interactions, these HBs lead to a larger electron localisation in the system, and concomitantly to larger QTAIM charges which in turn lead to stronger electrostatic, polarization and charge transfer components of the interaction. Overall, the results presented here offer a new perspective on the cause of strengthening of these important interactions.