Establishing a Hierarchy of Halogen Bonding by Engineering Crystals without Disorder

It has been shown, using a foundation of new structural data, that the relative strength and capability of iodo- and bromo-based molecules to act as halogen-bond donors in a competitive supramolecular arena accurately reflect a ranking of halogen-bond donors based upon electrostatic molecular potentials. Furthermore, to obtain the critical structural information, a protocol (comprising a lowering of molecular symmetry and the addition of strong and directional hydrogen bonds) for engineering crystals without positional disorder was successfully developed.