Cation–π interactions
between various onium
salts,
alkynes, and acetylene were studied, taking into account the substituents
of the triple bond, the nature of the anions, and the polarity of
the solvent, through a combination of MP2 calculations and experiments.
In an intramolecular setting, these data (including single-crystal
X-ray crystallography) concurred with the stability of folded conformers
of alkynyl onium salts, even substituted with electron-withdrawing
groups. To examine the contribution of these interactions on the alkyne
electronic population, a thorough in silico study was carried out
using natural bonding orbital analysis of the conformers. Intramolecular
interactions from sulfonium salt tethered to phenylalkyne were highlighted,
as illustrated above by the computed folded conformation (MP2) along
with noncovalent interaction (NCI) analysis. Furthermore, investigations
of intermolecular interactions, involving acetylene or phenylacetylene
with various onium ions, revealed the high energy interactions of
their complexes with phenyldimethylsulfonium chloride, as illustrated
above with the complex PhCCH/PhMe2SCl (MP2 calculations
and NCI analysis).