Characterization of C-H-O Hydrogen Bonds on the Basis of the Charge Density

Abstract

It is shown that the total charge density is a valid source to confirm hydrogen bonding without invoking a reference charge density. A set of criteria are proposed based on the theory of “atoms in molecules” to establish hydrogen bonding, even for multiple interactions involving C-H-O hydrogen bonds. These criteria are applied to several van der Waals complexes. Finally a bifurcated intramolecular C-H-O hydrogen bond is predicted in the anti-AIDS drug AZT, which may highlight a crucial feature of the biological activity of a whole class of anti-AIDS drugs. Almost all the methods of physical chemistry, spectroscopy, and diffraction can be used to recognize and study hydrogen bonding.] Each technique focuses on specific properties in order to detect and characterize this phenomenon in its own way. This work is concerned with the manifestation of hydrogen bonding in the charge density obtained from ab initio calculations. Whereas crystallographers have concluded upon hydrogen bonding via purely geometrical criteria, recent deformation density2 studies allow one to observe hydrogen bonding beyond mere ge~metry.~ However, it is not necessary to subtract an arbitrary (promolecular) charge density from the total density to reveal hydrogen bonding, not even in the interpretation of X-ray experiment^.^ Boyd and Choi have shown in two important contribution^^^^ that the theory of “atoms in molecules’’ (AIM)7,8 can be used to characterize hydrogen bonding solely from the (total) charge density for a large set of acceptor molecules, involving HF and HC1 as donors. In a next stage Carroll and Bader performed a more extended analysis on a large set of BASE-HF comple~es.~ This theory has not only provided new insights in conventional intermolecular hydrogenI0.’ ] bonding but has also been successful in intramolecularI33l4 and x-type hydrogen bonds.I5 Drawing from earlier ob~ervations~~~~ ~.’~~~~ and the present work, we formulate eight concerted effects occurring in the charge density which are indicative of hydrogen bonding. All of these effects can be viewed as necessary criteria to conclude that hydrogen bonding is present. By observation one of these conditions has proven to be sufficient as well. This case study on C-H-O interactions shows that this less common type of hydrogen bonding obeys all of the proposed criteria. Moreover, the multiple interactions appearing in the present five examples do not impair the consistency of the global phenomenon of hydrogen bonding as it expresses itself in the charge density. In spite of an early affirmative infrared review,I6 the old controversy on whether C-H-O hydrogen bonds really exist continued for another decade,” but now the dust has settled’* (for an entertaining account of this controversy, see ref 19). The importance of these bonds has been recognized in crystal engineering’9,20 since C-H-O contacts have a determining influence on packing motifs.21