No abstract

The concept of resonance-assisted hydrogen bond (RAHB) has been widely accepted, and its impact on structures and energetics can be best studied computationally using the block-localized wave function (BLW) method, which is a variant of ab initio valence bond (VB) theory and able to derive strictly electron-localized structures self-consistently. In this work, we use the BLW method to examine a few molecules that result from the merging of two malonaldehyde molecules. As each of these molecules contains two hydrogen bonds, these intramolecular hydrogen bonds may be cooperative or anticooperative, depended on their relative orientations, and compared with the hydrogen bond in malonaldehyde. Apart from quantitatively confirming the concept of RAHB, the comparison of the computations with and without π resonance shows that both σ-framework and π-resonance contribute to the nonadditivity in these RAHB systems with multiple hydrogen bonds.

A unique thorium-thorium bond was observed in the crystalline tri-thorium cluster [{Th(η 8 -C 8 H 8 )(μ 3 -Cl) 2 } 3 {K(THF) 2 } 2 ] ∞ , though the claim of σ-aromaticity for Th 3 bond has been questioned. Herein, a new type of core-shell syngenetic bonding model is proposed to describe the stability of this tri-thorium cluster. The model involves a 3c-2e bond in the Th 3 core and a multicentered (ThCl 2 ) 3 charge-shift bond with 12 electrons scattering along the outer shell. To differentiate the strengths of the 3c-2e bond and the charge-shift bond, the block-localized wavefunction (BLW) method which falls into the ab initio valence bond (VB) theory is employed to construct a strictly core/shell localized state and its contributing covalent resonance structure for the Th 3 core bond. By comparing with the σ-aromatic H 3 + and nonaromatic Li 3 + , the computed resonance energies and extra cyclic resonance energies confirm that this Th 3 core bond is truly delocalized and σaromatic.

Both computations and experiments have confirmed that amides have stronger self-associations than imides. While this intriguing phenomenon is usually explained in the term of secondary electrostatic repulsion from the additional spectator carbonyl groups in imides, recently it was proposed that the π resonance effect from the spectator carbonyl which alters the balance between the acidity of the hydrogen-bond (H-bond) donor and the basicity of the H-bond acceptor is the major cause. In this work, we examined the roles of π resonance and the secondary electrostatic interaction in the formation of amide and imide dimers by deactivating the π conjugation from the spectator carbonyl and flipping the spectator carbonyl using the block-localized wave function method which is the simplest variant of valence bond theory. Energetic, geometrical, and spectral results show that three major forces, namely the σ induction effect (IE), π resonance effect (RE), and secondary electrostatic interaction (SEI), contribute to the different binding energies in the dimers of amides and imides. Whereas IE favors stronger binding among imides, both RE and SEI diminish the self-association of imides. Obviously, the negative force from RE and SEI exceeds the positive force from IE. Relatively, SEI plays a little bigger role than RE.