Azido-mediated intermolecular interactions of transition metal complexes.

The coordinated azido ligand has a variety of ways to establish intermolecular contacts whose nature is computationally analysed in this work on dimers of the [N 3 -Hg(CF 3 )] complex with different interactions involving only N⋯N contacts, or with an additional Hg⋯N contact. The applied tools include the molecular electrostatic map of the monomer, an energy decomposition analysis (EDA), a topological AIM analysis of the electron density and the study of NCI (non-covalent interactions) isosurfaces. The interactions between two azido ligands are found to be weakly stabilizing (by 0.2 to 2.7 kcal mol -1 ), topology-dependent and require dispersion forces to complement orbital and electrostatic stabilization. Those interactions are supplemented by the formation of simultaneous Hg⋯N secondary interactions by about -1 kcal mol -1 , and by the ability of the monomer to simultaneously interact with several neighbours in the crystal structure.