Hydrogen bonds to coinage metals

In collaboration with Prof. Roithová (Radboud University) and Prof. Růžička (University of Pardubice), we published a series of papers dealing with inter- and intra-molecular interactions in gold(I) systems and in their silver(I) and copper(I) counterparts. We resolved the decades-old unsolved question of the existence of the Au(I)···H hydrogen bond (Straka, 2019). A novel type of intramolecular Au(I)···H+–N hydrogen bonding was characterized by spectroscopy and computations and provided undeniable proof of Au(I)···H bonding.

Inspired by the confirmed existence of Au(I)···H hydrogen bonds we now pursue a bold proposal of hydrogen bonding to Ag(I). Our theoretical predictions show that such compounds may exist (Andris, 2023). Preliminary experimental results indeed reveal Ag(I)···H bonds detected by means of gas-phase infrared and solution NMR spectroscopies (unpublished results).