hydrogen bonding in a
self-assembled dimer complex. The hydrogen bonds are represented by dotted lines. hydrogen bonding in
acetylacetone helps stabilize the
enol tautomer.
Definitions and general characteristics In a hydrogen bond, the electronegative atom not covalently attached to the hydrogen is named the proton acceptor, whereas the one covalently bound to the hydrogen is named the proton donor. This nomenclature is recommended by the IUPAC. hydrogen atoms tend to bond to elements such as sulfur (S) or chlorine (Cl); even carbon (C) can serve as a donor, particularly when the carbon or one of its neighbors is electronegative (e.g., in chloroform, aldehydes and terminal acetylenes). Gradually, it was recognized that there are many examples of weaker hydrogen bonding involving donor other than N, O, or F and/or acceptor Ac with electronegativity approaching that of hydrogen (rather than being much more electronegative). Although weak (about ), "non-traditional" hydrogen bonding interactions are ubiquitous and influence structures of many kinds of materials. The definition of hydrogen bonding has gradually broadened over time to include these weaker attractive interactions. In 2011, an
IUPAC Task Group recommended a modern evidence-based definition of hydrogen bonding, which was published in the IUPAC journal
Pure and Applied Chemistry. This definition specifies:
Bond strength Hydrogen bonds can vary in strength from weak (1–2 kJ/mol) to strong (161.5 kJ/mol in the
bifluoride ion, HF2-). Typical
enthalpies in vapor include: • (), illustrated uniquely by HF2- • (), illustrated water-ammonia • (), illustrated water-water, alcohol-alcohol • (), illustrated by ammonia-ammonia • (), illustrated water-amide • () The strength of intermolecular hydrogen bonds is most often evaluated by measurements of equilibria between molecules containing donor and/or acceptor units, most often in solution. The strength of intramolecular hydrogen bonds can be studied with equilibria between conformers with and without hydrogen bonds. The most important method for the identification of hydrogen bonds also in complicated molecules is
crystallography, sometimes also NMR-spectroscopy. Structural details, in particular distances between donor and acceptor which are smaller than the sum of the van der Waals radii can be taken as indication of the hydrogen bond strength. One scheme gives the following somewhat arbitrary classification: those that are , , and are considered strong, moderate, and weak, respectively.
Resonance assisted hydrogen bond The
resonance assisted hydrogen bond (commonly abbreviated as RAHB) is a strong type of hydrogen bond. It is characterized by the π-delocalization that involves the hydrogen atom and cannot be properly described by the
electrostatic model alone. This description of the hydrogen bond has been proposed to describe unusually short distances generally observed between or .
Structural details The distance is typically ≈110
pm, whereas the distance is ≈160 to 200 pm. The typical length of a hydrogen bond in water is 197 pm. The ideal bond angle depends on the nature of the hydrogen bond donor. The following hydrogen bond angles between a hydrofluoric acid donor and various acceptors have been determined experimentally:
Spectroscopy Strong hydrogen bonds are revealed by downfield shifts in the
1H NMR spectrum. For example, the acidic proton in the enol tautomer of
acetylacetone appears at {{tmath|\delta_\text{H} }} 15.5, which is about 10 ppm downfield of a conventional alcohol. In the IR spectrum, hydrogen bonding shifts the stretching frequency to lower energy (i.e. the vibration frequency decreases). This shift reflects a weakening of the bond. Certain hydrogen bonds - improper hydrogen bonds - show a blue shift of the stretching frequency and a decrease in the bond length. H-bonds can also be measured by IR vibrational mode shifts of the acceptor. The amide I mode of backbone carbonyls in α-helices shifts to lower frequencies when they form H-bonds with side-chain hydroxyl groups. The dynamics of hydrogen bond structures in water can be probed by this OH stretching vibration. In the hydrogen bonding network in protic organic ionic plastic crystals (POIPCs), which are a type of phase change material exhibiting solid-solid
phase transitions prior to melting, variable-temperature infrared spectroscopy can reveal the temperature dependence of hydrogen bonds and the dynamics of both the anions and the cations.
Theoretical considerations Hydrogen bonding is of persistent theoretical interest. According to a modern description integrates both the intermolecular O:H lone pair ":" nonbond and the intramolecular polar-covalent bond associated with repulsive coupling. Quantum chemical calculations of the relevant interresidue potential constants (
compliance constants) revealed large differences between individual H bonds of the same type. For example, the central interresidue hydrogen bond between guanine and cytosine is much stronger in comparison to the bond between the adenine-thymine pair. Theoretically, the bond strength of the hydrogen bonds can be assessed using NCI index,
non-covalent interactions index, which allows a visualization of these
non-covalent interactions, as its name indicates, using the electron density of the system. Interpretations of the
anisotropies in the
Compton profile of ordinary ice claim that the hydrogen bond is partly covalent. However, this interpretation was challenged and subsequently clarified. Most generally, the hydrogen bond can be viewed as a
metric-dependent
electrostatic scalar field between two or more intermolecular bonds. This is slightly different from the
intramolecular bound states of, for example,
covalent or
ionic bonds. However, hydrogen bonding is generally still a
bound state phenomenon, since the
interaction energy has a net negative sum. The initial theory of hydrogen bonding proposed by
Linus Pauling suggested that the hydrogen bonds had a partial covalent nature. This interpretation remained controversial until
NMR techniques demonstrated information transfer between hydrogen-bonded nuclei, a feat that would only be possible if the hydrogen bond contained some covalent character. ==History==