Alkyl chlorides as hydrogen bond acceptors

To gain an understanding of the role of an alkyl chloride as a hydrogen bond acceptor, geometries and interaction energies were calculated at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory for complexes between ethyl chloride and representative hydrogen donor groups. The results establish that these donors, which include hydrogen cyanide, methanol, nitrobenzene, pyrrole, acetamide, and N-methylurea, form XH⋯Cl hydrogen bonds (X = C, N, O) of weak to moderate strength, with ΔE values ranging from −2.8 to −5.3 kcal/mol.