Theoretical investigation of hydrogen bonding between water and platinum(II): an atom in molecule (AIM) study

Recently, Rizzato et al. [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 49, 7440 (2010)] [1] reported a hydrogen-bonding-like interaction between a water molecule and a d(8) metal ion (Pt-II) based on neutron diffraction, and provided the first crystallographic evidence for this interaction. We studied the hydrogen bonding of the O-H center dot center dot center dot Pt interaction theoretically using atoms in molecule (AIM) and natural bond orbital analysis (NBO) in the crystallographic geometries. The method used density functional theory (DFT) with the hybrid B3LYP function. For platinum atoms, we used the Los Alamos National Laboratory 2-Double-Zeta (LANL2DZ) basis set, and for the other atoms we used 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets. Criteria based on a topological analysis of the electron density were used in order to characterize the nature of interactions in the complexes. The main purpose of the present work is to provide an answer to the following questions: Why can a filled d orbital of square-planar d(8) metal ions such as platinum(II) also act as hydrogen-bond acceptors? Can a study based on the electron charge density answer this question? A good correlation between the density at the intermolecular bond critical point and the energy interaction was found. The interaction is mainly closed-shell and there is some charge transfer in this system.