Mapping C−H•••M interactions in confined spaces: (α-ICyDᴹᵉ)Au, Ag, Cu complexes reveal “contra-electrostatic H-bonds” masquerading as anagostic interactions

What happens when a C−H bond is forced to interact with unpaired pairs of electrons at a positively charged metal? Such interactions can be considered as “contra-electrostatic” H-bonds, which combine the familiar orbital interaction pattern characteristic for the covalent contribution to the conventional H-bonding with an unusual contra-electrostatic component. While electrostatics is strongly stabilizing component in the conventional C−H ••• X bonds where X is an electronegative main group element, it is destabilizing in the C−H ••• M contacts when M is Au(I), Ag(I), or Cu(I) of NHC−M−Cl systems. Such remarkable C−H ••• M interaction became experimentally accessible within (α-ICyD Me )MCl, NHC−Metal complexes embedded into cyclodextrins. Computational analysis of the model systems suggests that the overall interaction energies are relatively insensitive to moderate variations in the directionality of interaction between a C−H bond and the metal center, indicating stereoelectronic promiscuity of fully filled set of d -orbitals. A combination of experimental and computational data demonstrates that metal encapsulation inside the cyclodextrin cavity forces the C−H bond to point toward the metal, and reveals a still attractive “contra-electrostatic” H-bonding interaction.