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Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.121, No.36, 6845-6862, 2017
The Many Facets of Chalcogen Bonding: Described by Vibrational Spectroscopy
A diverse set of 100 chalcogen-bonded complexes comprising neutral, cationic, anionic, divalent, and double bonded chalcogens has been investigated using omega B97X-D/aug-cc-pVTZ to determine geometries, binding energies, electron and energy density distributions, difference density distributions, vibrational frequencies, local stretching force constants, and associated bond strength orders. The accuracy of omega B97X-D was accessed by CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ calculations of a subset of 12 complexes and by the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ //omega B97X-D binding energies of 95 complexes. Most of the weak chalcogen bonds can be rationalized on the basis of electrostatic contributions, but as the bond becomes stronger, covalent contributions can assume a primary role in the strength and geometry of the complexes. Covalency in chalcogen bonds involves the charge transfer from a lone pair orbital of a Lewis base into the sigma* orbital of a divalent chalcogen or a pi* orbital of a double bonded chalcogen. We describe for the first time a symmetric chalcogen-bonded homodimer stabilized by a charge transfer from a lone pair orbital into a pi* orbital. New polymeric materials based on chalcogen bonds should take advantage of the extra stabilization granted by multiple chalcogen bonds, as is shown for 1,2,5-telluradiazole dimers.