Weak Halogen Bond in Gas-Phase Systems: Molecular Beam Scattering Experiments and Ab-Initio Calculations

We recently published a series of papers on weak interactions involving water and other small hydrogenated and/or halogenated molecules. The emphasis was on the investigation of nature and strength of the hydrogen and halogen bonding that may be formed, and particularly on the assessment of the role of charge transfer from and to water, or ammonia, in hydrogen bonded and halogen bonded adducts. Herein we present new molecular beam scattering experiments, addressed to the investigation of simpler gas phase complexes, such as those between noble gases (Ng) and halogenated molecules, as CF4 and CCl4. In these cases only halogen bonding is expected to be operative.