PNNL

Abstract

Organic hosts for oxyanion complexation can be constructed by combining two or more hydrogen bonding sites. The deliberate design of architectures for such hosts requires knowledge of the optimal geometry for the hydrogen bonds formed between the host and the guest. Important structural parameters include the O--H distance, the O--H-D angle, the X-O--H angle, and the X-O--H-D dihedral angle (H-D=hydrogen bond donor, X=any atom). This information can be obtained through the analysis of hydrogen bonding observed in crystal structures and electronic structure calculations on simple gas-phase complexes. In this chapter, we present an analysis of hydrogen bonding structural parameters for alcohol hydrogen donors and the oxygen atom acceptors in nitrate and sulfate.