Halogen bonding yields “beautifully unnatural” compounds

摘要

Although hydrogen bonds are fundamental to the formation of many different materials, these directional interactions invariably depend on the smaller, lighter elements of the periodic table, usually nitrogen and oxygen. Over the last few years Tomislav Friscic, an associate professor in McGill University’s Department of Chemistry, has examined how halogens could build molecular assemblies with larger atoms. He and his colleagues were able to do just that, describing in Nature Communications how they introduced such atoms to one another in solid-state structures that represent unusual, supramolecular amalgamations of elements such as iodine and antimony, as well as a new approach to materials science.