Intermolecular interactions between metallylenes and carbonyl chalcogenides: Chalcogen bond and tetrel bond

The intermolecular interactions between the singlet metallylenes XH2 (X = Si, Ge, Sn, Pb) and carbonyl chalcogenides OCY (Y = S, Se, Te) have been studied by the high-level quantum chemical calculations. The chalcogen-bonded and tetrel-bonded complexes can be formed between XH2 and OCY due to their ambiphilic character. The structure and binding strength of the complexes have been explored on the basis of the MEP surfaces of the monomers, and geometrical parameters and interaction energies of the complexes. The nature of the complexes has been investigated by the NBO, AIM and SAPT analysis. The tetrel-bonded complexes exhibit a much stronger binding strength with larger interaction energies and shorter binding distances compared to the chalcogen-bonded complexes. The interaction energies of the complexes become larger with the increase of the Y atomic number, but become smaller with the increase of the X atomic number. NBO analysis reveals that the dominant orbital interactions in the chalcogen-bonded and tetrel-bonded complexes are LP(X) -> sigma*(C-Y) and LP (Y) -> LP*(X), respectively. AIM analysis suggests that the chalcogen-bonded complexes are the purely noncovalent, but the tetrel-bonded complexes have partial covalent character. SAPT analysis indicates that the contribution of the energy component decreases in the order of E-ele > E-disp > E-ind for most chalcogen-bonded complexes, and this order is E-ele > E-ind > E(disp )for most tetrel-bonded complexes.