Ab initio study of the influence of trimer formation on one- and two-bond spin-spin coupling constants across an X-H-Y hydrogen bond: AH:XH:YH3 complexes for A, X = 19F, 35Cl and Y = 15N, 31P.

Ab initio equation-of-motion coupled-cluster singles and doubles (EOM-CCSD) calculations have been carried out to investigate the effect of a third polar near-neighbor on one-bond ((1)J(X)(-)(H) and (1h)J(H)(-)(Y)) and two-bond ((2h)J(X)(-)(Y)) spin-spin coupling constants in AH:XH:YH(3) complexes, where A and X are (19)F and (35)Cl and Y is either (15)N or (31)P. The changes in both one- and two-bond spin-spin coupling constants upon trimer formation indicate that the presence of a third molecule promotes proton transfer across the X-H-Y hydrogen bond. The proton-shared character of the X-H-Y hydrogen bond increases in the order XH:YH(3) < ClH:XH:YH(3) < FH:XH:YH(3). This order is also the order of decreasing shielding of the hydrogen-bonded proton and decreasing X-Y distance, and is consistent with the greater hydrogen-bonding ability of HF compared to HCl as the third molecule. For all complexes, the reduced X-H and X-Y spin-spin coupling constants ((1)K(X)(-)(H) and (2h)K(X)(-)(Y)) are positive, consistent with previous studies of complexes in which X and Y are second-period elements in hydrogen-bonded dimers. (1h)K(H)(-)(Y) is, as expected, negative in these complexes which have traditional hydrogen bonds, except for ClH:FH:NH(3) and FH:FH:NH(3). In these two complexes, the F-H-N hydrogen bond has sufficient proton-shared character to induce a change of sign in (1h)K(H)(-)(Y). The effects of trimer formation on spin-spin coupling constants are markedly greater in complexes in which NH(3) rather than PH(3) is the proton acceptor.