Hydrogen-Bonded Complexes of Phenylacetylene with Water, Methanol, Ammonia, and Methylamine. The Origin of Methyl Group-Induced Hydrogen Bond Switching

The infrared spectra in the acetylenic C-H stretching region for the complexes of phenylacetylene with water, methanol, ammonia, and methylamine are indicative of change in the intermolecular structure upon substitution with a methyl group. High-level ab initio calculations at CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVDZ level indicate that the observed complexes of water and ammonia are energetically the most favored structures, and electrostatics play a dominant role in stabilizing these structures. The ability of the pi electron density of the benzene ring to offer a larger cross-section for the interaction and the increased polarizability of the O-H and N-H groups in methanol and methylamine favor the formation of pi hydrogen-bonded complexes, in which dispersion is the dominant force. Further, the observed phenylacetylene-methylamine complex can be tentatively assigned to a kinetically trapped higher energy structure. The observed methyl group-induced hydrogen bond switching in the phenylacetylene complexes can be attributed to the switching of the dominant interaction from electrostatic to dispersion.