Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.137, No.25, 8014-8017, 2015
Measurement of Silver-pi Interactions in Solution Using Molecular Torsion Balances
A new series of molecular torsion balances were designed to measure the strength of individual Ag-pi interactions in solution for an Ag(I) coordinated to a pyridine nitrogen. The formation of a well-defined intramolecular Ag-pi interaction in these model systems was verified by X-ray crystallography and H-1 NMR. The strength of the intramolecular Ag-pi interaction in solution was found to be stabilizing in nature and quantified to be -1.34 to -2.63 kcal/mol using a double mutant cycle analysis. The Ag-pi interaction was also found to be very sensitive to changes in geometry or solvent environment.