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Updated: Feb 26, 2026

From Molecules to Materials: Engineering New Ionic Liquid Crystals Through Halogen Bonding
Published on: March 24, 2018
Probing covalency in halogen bonds through donor K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy: polyhalides as coordination
Chantal L Mustoe1, Mathusan Gunabalasingam, Darren Yu
1Department of Chemistry, The University of British Columbia, 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada. pierre@chem.ubc.ca.
Abstract:
The properties of halogen bonds (XBs) in solid-state I2X- and I4X- materials (where X = Cl, Br) are explored using donor K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to experimentally determine the degree of charge transfer in such XB interactions. The degree of covalency in these bonds is substantial, even in cases where significantly weaker secondary interactions are observed. These data, in concert with previous work in this area, suggests that certain halogen bonds have covalent contributions to bonding that are similar to, and even exceed, those observed in transition metal coordinate bonds. For this reason, we suggest that XB interactions of this type be denoted in a similar way to coordination bonds (X → Y) as opposed to using a representation that is the same as for significantly less covalent hydrogen bonds (XY).
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