Ab initio study of the cooperativity between NH···N and NH···C hydrogen bonds in H3N–HNC–HNC complex

Ab initio calculations at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level have been performed to study the cooperativity of hydrogen bonds in homoclusters (HNC–HNC–HNC and HNC–HNC–HNC–HNC) and heteroclusters (H3N–HNC–HNC and H3N–HNC–HNC–HNC). The cooperative energies in the HNC–HNC–HNC and H3N–HNC–HNC trimers are –2.05 and –2.56 kcal/mol, respectively. The result shows that the cooperativity in the heterotrimer is larger than that in the homotrimer. A similar result also happens in the tetramers. The energy decomposition scheme indicates that orbital interaction is a major contribution to the cooperative energy of N···HN hydrogen bond, whereas the electrostatic and orbital interactions to that of C···HN hydrogen bond. The effect of HNC chain length on the strength of N···HN hydrogen bond has also been considered at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level. It is indicated that the interaction energy of N···HN hydrogen bond trends to be a fixed value when the HNC number tends to be infinite, and the strength of N···HN hydrogen bond is regulated mainly through the electrostatic and polarization interactions although the charge transfer interaction also has an effect on it.