H-bonded complexes of aniline with HF/F- and anilide with HF in terms of symmetry-adapted perturbation, atoms in molecules, and natural bond orbitals theories

The hydrogen-bonded isoelectronic complexes of aniline with HF/F- and an ionic form of aniline with HF were investigated by use of computational methods: Symmetry-Adapted Perturbation Theory (SAPT), Atoms in Molecules (AIM), and Natural Bond Orbitals (NBO) approaches. All computations were based on structural models previously generated at the B3LYP/6-311+(d,p) level. The differences between neutral (Ph-NH2 center dot center dot center dot HF) and anionic (Ph-NH2 center dot center dot center dot F- and Ph-NH- center dot center dot center dot HF) complexes were clearly outlined. The discussed charged complexes serve as Lewis acids and base, HF and F-, respectively. It was found that electrostatic and induction energy terms, obtained as a result of the SAPT method, are most dependent on the type of H-bonding (i.e., charged or neutral). The electrostatic term is the most distinctive between the neutral and charge-assisted hydrogen bonds in the investigated two-body systems, whereas the latter is more significant in the case of weaker interactions (larger H center dot center dot center dot B distances). Application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to energy components obtained from the SAPT procedure indicated that all of them are relatively well intercorrelated. The above-mentioned terms together with the exchange energy terms are the most important contributions of the main principal component, which describes 95% of the total variance. Comparison of AIM parameters in bond critical points for modeled H-bond systems shows a good agreement with those from equilibrium complexes, both experimental and calculated ones. It was found that charged H-bonded complexes exhibit larger fluctuation of electron density and its Laplacian in bond critical points, in line with SAPT analysis. NBO results confirmed the effect of the strength of interaction on property changes both in the region of H-bonding and outside of it. The latter, more distant consequences follow the Bent-Walsh rule for all studied complexes.