Predicting the catalytic activity of azolium-based halogen bond donors: an experimentally-verified theoretical study

Anions as Lewis Acids in Noncovalent Bonds

The ability of an anion to serve as electron-accepting Lewis acid in a noncovalent bond is assessed via DFT calculations. NH3 is taken as the common base, and is paired with a host of ACln - anions, with central atom A=Ca, Sr, Mg, Te, Sb, Hg, Zn, Ag, Ga, Ti, Sn, I, and B. Each anion reacts through its σ or π-hole although the electrostatic potential of this hole is quite negative in most cases. Despite the contact between this negative hole and the negative region of the approaching nucleophile, the electrostatic component of the interaction energy of each bond is highly favorable, and accounts for more than half of the total attractive energy. The double negative charge of dianions precludes a stable complex with NH3.

Chalcogen- and Halogen-Bond-Donating Cyanoborohydrides Provide Imine Hydrogenation

Sulfonium, selenonium, telluronium, and iodonium cyanoborohydrides have been synthesized, isolated, and fully characterized by various methods, including single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The quantum theory of atoms in molecules' analysis based on the XRD data indicated that the hydride···σ-hole short contacts observed in the crystal structures of each compound have a purely noncovalent nature. The telluronium and iodonium cyanoborohydrides provide a significantly higher rate of the model reaction of imine hydrogenation compared with sodium and tetrabutylammonium cyanoborohydrides. Based on the NMR and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry data indicating that the reaction progress is accompanied by the cation reduction, a mechanism involving intermediate formation of elusive onium hydrides has been proposed as an alternative to conventional electrophilic activation of the imine moiety by its ligation to the cation's σ-hole.

Influence of Coordination to Silver(I) Centers on the Activity of Heterocyclic Iodonium Salts Serving as Halogen-Bond-Donating Catalysts

Kinetic data based on 1 H NMR monitoring and computational studies indicate that in solution, pyrazole-containing iodonium triflates and silver(I) triflate bind to each other, and such an interplay results in the decrease of the total catalytic activity of the mixture of these Lewis acids compared to the separate catalysis of the Schiff condensation, the imine-isocyanide coupling, or the nucleophilic attack on a triple carbon-carbon bond. Moreover, the kinetic data indicate that such a cooperation with the silver(I) triflate results in prevention of decomposition of the iodonium salts during the reaction progress. XRD study confirms that the pyrazole-containing iodonium triflate coordinates to the silver(I) center via the pyrazole N atom to produce a rare example of a pentacoordinated trigonal bipyramidal dinuclear silver(I) complex featuring cationic ligands.

Xenon Derivatives as Aerogen Bond-Donating Catalysts for Organic Transformations: A Theoretical Study on the Metaphorical "Spherical Cow in a Vacuum" Provides Insights into Noncovalent Organocatalysis

Computations indicate that cationic and noncharged xenon derivatives should exhibit higher catalytic activity than their iodine-based noncovalent organocatalytic congeners. Perfluorophenyl xenonium(II) is expected to demonstrate the best balance between catalytic activity and chemical stability for use in organocatalysis. Comparing its catalytic activity with that of isoelectronic perfluoroiodobenzene indicates that the high catalytic activity of cationic noncovalent organocatalysts is predominantly attributed to the electrostatic interactions with the reaction substrates, which cause the polarization of ligated species during the reaction progress. In contrast, the electron transfer and covalent contributions to the bonding between the catalyst and substrate have negligible effects. The dominant effect of electrostatic interactions results in a strong negative correlation between the calculated Gibbs free energies of activation for the modeled reactions and the highest potentials of the σ-holes on the central atoms of the catalysts. No such correlation is observed for noncharged catalysts.

Non-Covalent Catalysts

The elementary stages of chemical reactions (including catalytic ones) are caused by such weak inter- and intramolecular contacts as hydrogen, halogen, chalcogen, and tetrel bonds as well as stacking (and other π-system-involved) interactions [...]

Halonium, chalconium, and pnictonium salts as noncovalent organocatalysts: a computational study on relative catalytic activity

This theoretical study sheds light on the relative catalytic activity of pnictonium, chalconium, and halonium salts in reactions involving elimination of chloride and electrophilic activation of a carbonyl group. DFT calculations indicate that for cationic aromatic onium salts, values of the electrostatic potential on heteroatom σ-holes gradually increase from pnictogen- to halogen-containing species. The higher values of the potential on the halogen atoms of halonium salts result in the overall higher catalytic activity of these species, but in the case of pnictonium and chalconium cations, weak interactions from the side groups provide an additional stabilization effect on the reaction transition states. Based upon quantum-chemical calculations, the catalytic activity of phosphonium(V) and arsenonium(V) salts is expected to be too low to obtain effective noncovalent organocatalytic compounds, whereas stibonium(V), telluronium(IV) and iodonium(III) salts exhibit higher potential in application as noncovalent organocatalysts.

Ionic Liquids as Organocatalysts for Nucleophilic Fluorination: Concepts and Perspectives

Besides their extremely useful properties as solvent, ionic liquids (ILs) are now considered to be highly instructive tools for enhancing the rates of chemical reactions. The ionic nature of the IL anion and cation seems to be the origin of this fascinating function of ILs as organocatalyst/promoter through their strong Coulombic forces on other ionic species in the reaction and also through the formation of hydrogen bonds with various functional groups in substrates. It is now possible to tailor-make ILs for specific purposes as solvent/promoters in a variety of situations by carefully monitoring these interactions. Despite the enormous potentiality, it seems that the application of ILs as organocatalysts/promoters for chemical reactions have not been fully achieved so far. Herein, we review recent developments of ILs for promoting the nucleophilic reactions, focusing on fluorination. Various aspects of the processes, such as organocatalytic capability, reaction mechanisms and salt effects, are discussed.

The role of halogen bonds in the catalytic mechanism of the iso-Nazarov cyclization reaction: a DFT study

With the continuous development of halogen bonds, halogen bond donors have been used as clean and efficient catalysts in organic reactions. In this work, with inorganic halides (I₂, IBr, ICl, and ICl₃) as catalysts and the iso-Nazarov cyclization as the benchmark reaction, we aim at investigating the role of the halogen bond in the catalytic mechanism. The halogen bond catalyzed iso-Nazarov cyclization reaction involves three steps: carbon-carbon coupling process, [1,2]-H shift process, and [1,4]-H shift process. The halogen-bonding interaction promotes the charge accumulation of the oxygen atom in the carbonyl group and decreases the activation energy of the reaction. The catalytic activity of the halogen bond donor is enhanced in the order of I₂ < IBr < ICl < ICl₃, and it could be predicted that the partial covalent interaction of the I⋯O halogen bond between the catalyst ICl₃ and the oxygen atom of the reactant may exhibit good catalytic activity in the experiments. In the [1,4]-H shift process, the two-step hydrogen bond/halogen bond co-catalyzed mechanism exhibits the lowest reaction energy barrier than the one-step water co-catalyzed proton transfer mechanism and the direct one.

Sulfonium and Selenonium Salts as Noncovalent Organocatalysts for the Multicomponent Groebke-Blackburn-Bienaymé Reaction

Sulfonium and selenonium salts, represented by S-aryl dibenzothiophenium and Se-aryl dibenzoselenophenium triflates, were found to exhibit remarkable catalytic activity in the model Groebke-Blackburn-Bienaymé reaction. Kinetic analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated that their catalytic effect is induced by the ligation of the reaction substrates to the σ-holes on the S or Se atom of the cations. The experimental data indicated that although 10-fold excess of the chloride totally inhibits the catalytic activity of the sulfonium salts, the selenonium salt remains catalytically active, which can be explained by the experimentally found lower binding constant of the selenonium derivative to chloride in comparison with the sulfonium analogue. Both types of salts exhibit lower catalytic activity in the model reaction than dibenziodolium species.

Diaryliodoniums as Hybrid Hydrogen- and Halogen-Bond-Donating Organocatalysts for the Groebke-Blackburn-Bienaymé Reaction

Dibenziodolium and diphenyliodonium triflates display high catalytic activity for the multicomponent reaction that leads to a series of imidazopyridines. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that both the salts can play the role of hybrid hydrogen- and halogen-bond-donating organocatalysts, which electrophilically activate the carbonyl and imine groups during the reaction process. The ortho-H atoms in the vicinal position to the I atom play a dual role: forming additional noncovalent bonds with the ligated substrate and increasing the maximum electrostatic potential on the σ-hole at the iodine atom owing to the effects of polarization. Dibenziodolium triflate exhibits higher catalytic activity, and the results obtained from ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) titrations, in conjunction with those from DFT calculations, indicate that this could be explained in terms of the additional energy required for the rotation of the phenyl ring in the diphenyliodonium cation during ligation of the substrate.

Attaching Onto or Inserting Into an Intramolecular Hydrogen Bond: Exploring and Controlling a Chirality-Dependent Dilemma for Alcohols

Prereactive complexes in noncovalent organocatalysis are sensitive to the relative chirality of the binding partners and to hydrogen bond isomerism. Both effects are present when a transiently chiral alcohol docks on a chiral α-hydroxy ester, turning such 1:1 complexes into elementary, non-reactive model systems for chirality induction in the gas phase. With the help of linear infrared and Raman spectroscopy in supersonic jet expansions, conformational preferences are investigated for benzyl alcohol in combination with methyl lactate, also exploring p-chlorination of the alcohol and the achiral homolog methyl glycolate to identify potential London dispersion and chirality effects on the energy sequence. Three of the four combinations prefer barrierless complexation via the hydroxy group of the ester (association). In contrast, the lightest complex predominantly shows insertion into the intramolecular hydrogen bond, such as the analogous lactate and glycolate complexes of methanol. The experimental findings are rationalized with computations, and a uniform helicality induction in the alcohol by the lactate is predicted, independent of insertion into or association with the internal lactate hydrogen bond. p-chlorination of benzyl alcohol has a stabilizing effect on association because the insertion motif prevents a close contact between the chlorine and the hydroxy ester. After simple anharmonicity and substitution corrections, the B3LYP-D3 approach offers a fairly systematic description of the known spectroscopic data on alcohol complexes with α-hydroxy esters.

Theoretical Investigation on Non-Covalent Interactions

This editorial is dedicated to announcing the Special Issue “Theoretical investigation on non-covalent interactions” of Crystals. The Special Issue covers the most recent progress in the rapidly growing fields of data science, artificial intelligence, and quantum and computational chemistry in topics relevant to the problem of theoretical investigation on non-covalent interactions (including, but not limited to, hydrogen, halogen, chalcogen, pnictogen, tetrel, and semi-coordination bonds; agosic and anagosic interactions; stacking, anion-/cation–π interactions; metallophilic interactions, etc.). The main successes of my colleagues and I in the field of fundamental theoretical studies of non-covalent interactions in various chemical compounds over the past year are briefly highlighted.

Mechanism and Impact of Mono/bis(iodoimidazolium) Halogen-Bond Donor Catalysts on Michael Addition of Indole with Trans-crotonophenone: DFT Investigations

The bidentate halogen bond donor catalysts in organic reactions have attracted greatly attention in recent years. In this work, the catalytic mechanism of mono/bis(iodoimidazolium) halogen bond donor catalysts on the...