Spectroscopic and ab initio investigation of 2,6-difluorophenylacetylene-amine complexes: coexistence of C-H···N and lone-pair···π complexes and intermolecular coulombic decay.

Binary complexes of 2,6-difluorophenylacetylene with methylamine, dimethylamine, trimethylamine and triethylamine were investigated using one colour resonant two photon ionization and infrared-optical double resonance spectroscopic techniques combined with high level ab initio calculations. All four amines form CAc-H···N hydrogen-bonded complexes. Additionally trimethylamine and triethylamine form complexes characterized by Lp···π interactions, due to the electron deficient nature of the phenyl ring of 2,6-difluorophenylacetylene. The Lp···π interacting structure of the 2,6-difluorophenylacetylene-trimethylamine complex is about 1.5 kJ mol(-1) higher in energy than the CAc-H···N hydrogen-bonded structure, which is the global minimum. Energy decomposition analysis indicates that the electrostatics and dispersion interactions favour the formation of CAc-H···N and Lp···π complexes, respectively. Interestingly the CAc-H···N hydrogen-bonded complex of 2,6-difluorophenylacetylene-triethylamine showed a smaller shift in the acetylenic C-H stretching frequency than the 2,6-difluorophenylacetylene-trimethylamine complex. The observed fragmentation of the binary complexes of 2,6-difluorophenylacetylene with the four amines following resonant two-photon ionization can be explained on the basis of the intermolecular coulombic decay process.