Bridging the Gap between the Topological and Orbital Description of Hydrogen Bonding: The Case of the Formic Acid Dimer and Its Sulfur Derivatives

Noncovalent interactions from electron density topology and solvent effects on spectral properties of Schiff bases

Two Schiff bases were prepared by the condensation of o-allyl substituted 2,4-dihydroxy acetophenone with 1,2-diaminopropane (L1) and ethanediamine (L2) and characterized by elemental analysis, and ESI-MS, IR, UV-Vis, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectral techniques. The effect of solvents with respect to different polarities on UV-Vis and emission spectra of L1 and L2 was investigated at room temperature show that the compounds exist in keto and enol forms in solution and may be attributed to the intramolecular proton transfer in the ground state. The solute-solvent interactions, change in dipole moment and solvatochromic properties of the compounds were studied based on the solvent polarity parameters. For L1 and L2, the ground and excited state electronic structure calculations were carried out by DFT and TD-DFT at B3LYP/6-311G (d,p) level, respectively. The IR, NMR and electronic absorption spectra computed were compared with the experimental observations. The intramolecular charge transfer within the molecule is evidenced from the HOMO and LUMO energy levels and surface analysis. The noncovalent interactions like hydrogen bonding and van der Waals interactions were identified from the molecular geometry and electron localization function. These interactions in molecules have been studied by using reduced density gradient and graphed by Multiwfn.

Hydrogen bonding and delocalization in the ELF analysis approach

Delocalization in hydrogen bonded systems is revealed by ELF along the interaction line.

Intramolecular hydrogen bonds: the QTAIM and ELF characteristics

B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ calculations were performed on the species with intramolecular O-H···O hydrogen bonds. The Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) and the Electron Localization Function (ELF) method were applied to analyze these interactions. Numerous relationships between ELF and QTAIM parameters were found. It is interesting that the CVB index based on the ELF method as well as the total electron energy density at the bond critical point of the proton-acceptor distance (H(bcp)) may be treated as universal descriptors of the hydrogen bond strength, they are also useful to estimate the covalent character of this interaction. There are so-called resonance-assisted hydrogen bonds (RAHBs) among the species analyzed here. It was found that there are not any distinct differences between RAHBs and the other intramolecular hydrogen bonds.