The imidazolium cation has a number of different sites
that can
interact with a nucleophile. Adding a halogen atom (X) or a chalcogen
(YH) group introduces the possibility of an NX···nuc
halogen or NY···nuc chalcogen bond, which competes
against the various H-bonds (NH and CH donors) as well as the lone
pair···π interaction wherein the nucleophile
lies above the plane of the cation. Substituted imidazoliums are paired
with the NH3 base, and the various different complexes
are evaluated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The
strength of XB and YB increases quickly along with the size and polarizability
of the X/Y atom, and this sort of bond is the strongest for the heavier
Br, I, Se, and Te atoms, followed by the NH···N H-bond,
but this order reverses for Cl and S. The various CH···N
H-bonds are comparable to one another and to the lone pair···π
bond, all with interaction energies of 10–13 kcal/mol, values
which show very little dependence upon the substituent placed on the
imidazolium.