Posts Tagged ‘frequent commentator’

Halogen bonds: Part 1.

Saturday, November 29th, 2014

Halogen bonds are less familiar cousins to hydrogen bonds. They are defined as non-covalent interactions (NCI) between a halogen atom (X, acting as a Lewis acid, in accepting electrons) and a Lewis base D donating electrons; D….X-A vs D…H-A. They are superficially surprising, since both D and X look like electron rich species. In fact the electron distribution around X-X (A=X) is highly anisotropic, with the electron rich distribution (the "donor")  being in a torus encircling the bond, and an electron deficient region (the "acceptor") lying along the axis of the bond.

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