When R is sufficiently electron withdrawing, the fluorine in the R-F molecules could interact with electron donors (e.g., ammonia) and form a noncovalent bond (F⋅⋅⋅N). Although these interactions are usually categorized as halogen bonding, our studies show that there are fundamental differences between these interactions and halogen bonds. Although the anisotropic distribution of electronic charge around a halogen is responsible for halogen bond formations, the electronic charge around the fluorine in these molecules is spherical. According to source function analysis, F is the sink of electron density at the F⋅⋅⋅N BCP, whereas other halogens are the source. In contrast to halogen bonds, the F⋅⋅⋅N interactions cannot be regarded as lump-hole interactions; there is no hole in the valence shell charge concentration (VSCC) of fluorine. Although the quadruple moment of Cl and Br is mainly responsible for the existence of σ-holes, it is negligibly small in the fluorine. Here, the atomic dipole moment of F plays a stabilizing role in the formation of F⋅⋅⋅N bonds. Interacting quantum atoms (IQA) analysis indicates that the interaction between halogen and nitrogen in the halogen bonds is attractive, whereas it is repulsive in the F⋅⋅⋅N interactions. Virial-based atomic energies show that the fluorine, in contrast to Cl and Br, stabilize upon complex formation. According to these differences, it seems that the F⋅⋅⋅N interactions should be referred to as "fluorine bond" instead of halogen bond.
The nature of H-H interaction between ortho-hydrogen atoms in planar biphenyl is investigated by two different atomic energy partitioning methods, namely fractional occupation iterative Hirshfeld (FOHI) and interacting quantum atoms (IQA), and compared with the traditional virial-based approach of quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM). In agreement with Bader's hypothesis of H-H bonding, partitioning the atomic energy into intra-atomic and interatomic terms reveals that there is a net attractive interaction between the ortho-hydrogens in the planar biphenyl. This falsifies the classical view of steric repulsion between the hydrogens. In addition, in contrast to the traditional QTAIM energy analysis, both FOHI and IQA show that the total atomic energy of the ortho-hydrogens remains almost constant when they participate in the H-H interaction. Although, the interatomic part of atomic energy of the hydrogens plays a stabilizing role during the formation of the H-H bond, it is almost compensated by the destabilizing effects of the intra-atomic parts and consequently, the total energy of the hydrogens remains constant. The trends in the changes of intra-atomic and interatomic energy terms of ortho-hydrogens during H-H bond formation are very similar to those observed for the H2 molecule.
The nature of beryllium bonds formed between BeX2 (X is H, F and Cl) and some Lewis bases have been investigated. The distribution of the Laplacian of electron density shows that there is a region of charge depletion around the Be atom, which, according to Laplacian complementary principal, can interact with a region of charge concentration of an atom in the base and form a beryllium bond. The molecular graphs of the investigated complexes indicate that beryllium in BeH2 and BeF2 can form “beryllium bonds” with O, N and P atoms but not with halogens. In addition, eight criteria based on QTAIM properties, including the values of electron density and its Laplacian at the BCP, penetration of beryllium and acceptor atom, charge, energy, volume and first atomic moment of beryllium atom, have been considered and compared with the corresponding ones in conventional hydrogen bonds. These bonds share many common features with very strong hydrogen bonds, however,some differences have also been observed.
Although, most of the authors classify the pnicogen bonds as σ-hole bonding, there are some evidence that show they do not require any positive electrostatic potential around interacting molecules. In this work, the Laplacian of electron density is used to study pnicogen bonds in different dimer and trimer complexes. It is shown that the noncovalent P···P, P···N, and N···N bonds can be categorized as lump-hole interactions; a region of charge depletion and excess kinetics energy (hole) in the valence shell charge concentration (VSCC) of pnicogen atom combines with a region of charge concentration and excess potential energy (lump) in the VSCC of another molecule and form a pnicogen bond. In fact, since the full quantum potential (according to the local statement of virial theorem) has been used in the definition of the Laplacian, the lump-hole concept is more useful than the σ-hole in which the electrostatic part of potential is only considered. It is shown that the existence of hole in the VSCC of pnicogen atom is responsible for formation and (in the absence of other interactions) geometry of pnicogen bonded complexes. Because there is (at least) one hole in their VSCC, the pnicogen atoms in PH3, PH2F, H2C═PH, H2C═PF, and NH2F can engage in direct pnicogen-pnicogen interactions. However, the VSCC of nitrogen atom in the NH3 is devoid of hole and hence cannot act as an electron acceptor in pnicogen-bonded complexes.
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