Current models describe aromatic rings as polar groups based on the fact that benzene and hexafluorobenzene are known to have large and permanent quadrupole moments. This report describes a quantitative study of the interactions between oxygen lone pair and aromatic rings. We found that even electron-rich aromatic rings and oxygen lone pairs exhibit attractive interactions. Free energies of interactions are determined using the triptycene scaffold and the equilibrium constants were determined by low-temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy. An X-ray structure analysis for one of the model compounds confirms the close proximity between the oxygen and the center of the aromatic ring. Theoretical calculations at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level corroborate the experimental results. The origin of attractive interactions was explored by using aromatic rings with a wide range of substituents. The interactions between an oxygen lone pair and an aromatic ring are attractive at van der Waals' distance even with electron-donating substituents. Electron-withdrawing groups increase the strength of the attractive interactions. The results from this study can be only partly rationalized by using the current models of aromatic system. Electrostatic-based models are consistent with the fact that stronger electron-withdrawing groups lead to stronger attractions, but fail to predict or rationalize the fact that weak attractions even exist between electron-rich arenes and oxygen lone pairs. The conclusion from this study is that aromatic rings cannot be treated as a simple quadrupolar functional group at van der Waals' distance. Dispersion forces and local dipole should also be considered.

The lone pair-π interaction between H(2)O and C(6)F(6) was studied using matrix isolation infrared spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. Co-deposition of H(2)O with C(6)F(6) in a nitrogen matrix at 17 K followed by annealing to 30 K, results in the appearance of multiple new peaks in the infrared spectrum that are shifted from the H(2)O and C(6)F(6) parent absorptions. These peaks only appear when both the H(2)O and C(6)F(6) are present and have been assigned to distinct structures of a 1:1 H(2)O·C(6)F(6) complex. Similar experiments were performed with D(2)O and HDO and the corresponding infrared peaks for the structures of the D(2)O·C(6)F(6) and HDO·C(6)F(6) complexes have also been observed. Theoretical calculations were performed for the H(2)O·C(6)F(6) complex using the B3LYP, MP2, and CCSD(T) methods. Geometry optimizations at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ and MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ levels of theory located three structural minima, all of which involve the lone pair-π interaction between the H(2)O and the C(6)F(6) ring, but with different relative orientations of the H(2)O and C(6)F(6) subunits. BSSE corrected interaction energies were estimated at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level and found to be between -11.2 and -12.3 kJ/mol for the three H(2)O·C(6)F(6) structures. Vibrational frequencies for the each of the structures were calculated at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ and MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ levels. The frequencies calculated with both methods support the assignments of the observed new peaks in the infrared spectra to the structures of the H(2)O·C(6)F(6) complex; however, the B3LYP calculated frequency shifts were found to be in better quantitative agreement with the experimentally observed frequency shifts.

Ab initio calculations have been used to investigate the interaction energies of dimers of dimethyl ether with benzene, hexafluorobenzene, and several monosubstituted benzenes. The potential energy curves were explored at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level for two basic configurations of the dimers, one in which the oxygen atom of the dimethyl ether was pointed towards the aromatic ring and the other in which the oxygen atom was pointed away from the aromatic ring. Once the optimum intermolecular distances between the dimethyl and the aromatic ring had been determined for each of the dimers in both configurations at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level, single point energy calculations were performed at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level. A CCSD(T) correction term to the energy was determined and this was combined with the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ energies to estimate the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ interaction energies of the dimers. The estimated CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ interaction energies are predicted to be attractive for all of the dimers in both configurations and dispersion interactions are found to be a large component of the stabilization of the dimers. For the dimers with the dimethyl ether oxygen pointing towards the aromatic ring, the strengths of interaction energies are found to increase as the aromatic ring becomes more electron deficient, while for the dimers with the dimethyl ether oxygen pointing away from the aromatic ring, they increase as the aromatic ring becomes more electron rich. In both cases, the trends can be explained in terms of the electrostatic potentials of the dimethyl ether and the aromatic rings.

Vacuum ultraviolet photolysis (121.6 nm) of silane in a nitrogen matrix at 12 K leads to the observation of several transient species, which have been characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Four transient species containing silicon and nitrogen have been observed (SiN2, Si(N2)2, HSiN2, and H2SiN2), and one transient species containing only silicon and hydrogen has been observed. The assignment of the infrared bands due to each of these species is accomplished by performing isotopic substitution experiments (SiD4, 15N2, and mixtures with SiH4 and 14N2), matrix annealing experiments, UV-visible photolysis experiments, by comparison with previous experimental matrix isolation frequencies, where available, and for HSiN2 and H2SiN2 by comparison to B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ-calculated vibrational frequencies. The observation and infrared assignment of the HSiN2 and H2SiN2 molecules in these experiments is significant in that HSiN2 has not been previously reported in the matrix isolation literature, and H2SiN2 has only been reported once previously by a different route of formation. The energetics of the overall formation pathways for the molecules observed in these experiments is discussed using B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ calculations.