Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
A statistical analysis of entries from the CSD (Cambridge Structural Database) showed that the average hydrogen-bond geometry to the nitrogen acceptor atom of the thiocyanate anion was not collinear with respect to the molecular axis of the anion and so not collinear with the nitrogen lone pair Tchertanov & Pascard (1996). Acta Cryst. B52, 685–690. This somewhat unexpected result has been investigated further using theoretical energy calculations applying Intermolecular Perturbation Theory in combination with a more detailed statistical analysis of an appropriate CSD dataset. The energy calculations pointed to the formation of the strongest hydrogen bonds in the nitrogen lone-pair direction. The statistical analysis showed that this directionality occurs in cases where the N atom accepts one hydrogen bond only. The non-linear average hydrogen-bond geometry observed in the earlier study can be attributed to multiple hydrogen bonding to the N atom. In such cases, there is a shift away from the optimum orientation.
Lommerse et al. (1998) studied this question.