Metals and hydrogen bonds

The hydrogen bond is commonly considered to lie within the domain of organic or biological chemistry, involving interactions of a hydrogen atom with two electronegative p-block elements. However, recent work, particularly in the past decade, has highlighted the role of metal centres in hydrogen bonding, the inorganic and organometallic sides of hydrogen bonding. This Perspective provides a personal view of the varied roles that metals, particularly transition metals, can play in hydrogen bonding and the potential importance and applications of metal involvement. It draws upon work in this area conducted in my research group over the past decade as well as related work from the literature.