Simultaneous Hydrogen Bonds with Different Binding Modes: The Acceptor "Rules" but the Donor "Chooses".

Invited for the cover of this issue is the group of Cristina Trujillo at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Manchester. The image depicts a market run by hydrogen bond acceptors in which hydrogen-bond-donor "customers" are choosing their preferred binding mode "vegetable". Read the full text of the article at 10.

Simultaneous Hydrogen Bonds with Different Binding Modes: The Acceptor "Rules" but the Donor "Chooses".

This computational work studies the different hydrogen bond (HB) binding modes that can be established between neighbouring HB donors and acceptors in structures with relevance in catalysis and biology. To analyse the electronic effect on the σ-hole, unsubstituted HB donors and ones with two different substituents, an electron withdrawing (EWG), and an electron donating (EDG) group, were studied. Upon complexation, three different binding modes were observed: bifurcated, parallel, and zigzag.