Halogen bond involving hypervalent halogen: CSD search and theoretical study

The Cambridge Structure Database search shows that there are over seventy crystal structures containing halogen bonds in which hypervalent halogens, not monovalent halogens as usual, behave as acceptors of electron density. The nature of the halogen bond involving hypervalent halogen has been investigated by using several theoretical methods with different basis sets. The HF calculations for the complexes studied cover most of their binding energies, which indicates the electrostatic nature of the halogen bond involving hypervalent halogen. The MP2 methods with medium basis sets fail to predict the relative strength of the halogen bond involving hypervalent halogen and the corresponding halogen bond involving monovalent halogen. Accurate computational results show that the halogen bond involving hypervalent halogen may be weaker than the corresponding halogen bond involving monovalent halogen even in the case that the hypervalent halogen is more positively charged than the monovalent halogen, the reasons of which were discussed in some detail. In comparison with the halogen bond involving monovalent halogen, the bonding characteristic and electron-density transfer of the halogen bond involving hypervalent halogen were also analyzed with the "atoms in molecules" theory and the natural bond orbital theory.