Competition between lone pair–π, halogen bond, and hydrogen bond in adducts of water with perhalogenated alkenes C2ClnF4−n (n = 0–4)

Abstract

A thorough search of the potential energy surface is carried out for heterodimers of water with C2ClnF4−n. Three different types of interactions are observed. Structures dominated by a lone pair–π interaction have the highest binding energies, and are stabilized by charge transfer from O lone pairs of H2O to the CC π* antibonding orbital of the alkene. Halogen-bonded O⋯Cl complexes are slightly less strongly bound, followed by OH⋯X hydrogen bonds. The replacements of Cl by F atoms have only small effects upon binding energies. Inclusion of vibrational and entropic effects removes the clear energetic superiority of lp–π binding energies. When combined with the observation of several similar geometries for each particular heterodimer type, and a sensitivity to basis set, it would be quite difficult to predict with any degree of certainty the single most stable configuration, even with very high level calculations.