title: Intramolecular hydrogen bonds: common motifs, probabilities of formation and implications for supramolecular organization.
abstract: A systematic survey of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) has identified all intramolecular hydrogen-bonded ring motifs comprising less than 20 atoms with N and O donors and acceptors. The probabilities of formation P(m) of the 50 most common motifs, which chiefly comprise five- and six-membered rings, have been derived by considering the number of intramolecular motifs which could possibly form. The most probable motifs (P(m) > 85%) are planar conjugated six-membered rings with a propensity for resonance-assisted hydrogen bonding and these form the shortest contacts, whilst saturated six-membered rings typically have P(m) < 10%. The influence of intramolecular-motif formation on intermolecular hydrogen-bond formation has been assessed for a planar conjugated model substructure, showing that a donor-H is considerably less likely to form an intermolecular bond if it forms an intramolecular one. On the other hand, the involvement of a carbonyl acceptor in an intramolecular bond does not significantly affect its ability to act as an intermolecular acceptor and thus carbonyl acceptors display a substantially higher inclination for bifurcation if one hydrogen bond is intramolecular.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, England.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bilton
authors.forename: F H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Shields
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Howard