Effect of aromatic ring fluorination on CH···π interactions: rotational spectrum and structure of the fluorobenzene···acetylene weakly bound dimer.

The rotational spectra for the normal isotopic species and for six (13)C singly substituted isotopologues (in natural abundance) of the fluorobenzene···acetylene (C6H5F···HCCH) weakly bound dimer have been measured in the 6.5-18.5 GHz region using chirped-pulse Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy. The HCCH molecule interacts with the fluorobenzene via a CH···π contact and is determined to lie almost over the center of, and approximately perpendicular to, the aromatic ring, with an H···π distance (perpendicular distance from the H atom to the ring plane) of around 2.492(47) Å; a slight tilt of HCCH towards the para carbon atom of the fluorobenzene is evident. Binding energies of this complex and related benzene and fluorobenzene dimers obtained from the pseudodiatomic approximation are compared and indicate that fluorobenzene···acetylene lies among the more weakly bound of the complexes exhibiting some type of CH···π interaction.