Experimental and computational study demonstrates isolation of a crystalline encounter complex in bulky frustrated Lewis pairs, highlighting the stabilizing role of London dispersion forces.
The encounter complex, i.e., the pre-organized assembly consisting of a Lewis acid and a Lewis base, is a fundamental concept in frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) chemistry. However, this donor–acceptor complex is challenging to study due to its transient nature. Here, we present a combined theoretical and experimental investigation on the potential isolation of an encounter complex enabled by enhancement of London dispersion forces between a sterically encumbered Lewis acid and base pair. Guided by computational analyses, the FLP originating from the bulky triarylamine N(3,5-tBu2C6H3)3 and the novel triarylborane B(3,5-tBu2C6H3)3 was investigated, leading to the isolation of a 1:1 co-crystal of both FLP components.
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Holtrop et al. (2022) studied this question.
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