Electrostatics, Charge Transfer, and the Nature of the Halide-Water Hydrogen Bond

Binary halide-water complexes X-(H2O) are examined by means of symmetry-adapted perturbation theory, using charge-constrained promolecular reference densities to extract a meaningful charge-transfer component from the induction energy. As is known, the X-(H2O) potential energy surface (for X = F, Cl, Br, or I) is characterized by symmetric left and right hydrogen bonds separated by a C-2v-symmetric saddle point, with a tunneling barrier height that is <2 kcal/mol except in the case of F-(H2O). Our analysis demonstrates that the charge-transfer energy is correspondingly small (<2 kcal/mol except for X = F), considerably smaller than the electrostatic interaction energy. Nevertheless, charge transfer plays a crucial role determining the conformational preferences of X-(H2O) and provides a driving force for the formation of quasi-linear X center dot center dot center dot H-O hydrogen bonds. Charge-transfer energies correlate well with measured O-H vibrational redshifts for the halide-water complexes and also for OH-(H2O) and NO2-(H2O), providing some indication of a general mechanism.

Automated summary

Binary halide-water complexes X-(H2O) were studied using symmetry-adapted perturbation theory, revealing that charge-transfer energy is small but crucial in determining conformational preferences and driving the formation of hydrogen bonds.