THREE-GOLD CLUSTER AS PROTON ACCEPTOR IN NONCONVENTIONAL HYDROGEN BONDS O-H…Au AND N-H…Au

Abstract

The present work extends the family of nonconventional proton acceptors to the coinage metal Au. Based on high level computations, we demonstrate the ability of the triangle three-gold cluster to behave as nonconventional proton acceptor and hence to form hydrogen bonds with conventional hydrogen bond donors. Three molecules: formic acid, alanine, and adenine, involving O-H and N-H groups as typical conventional hydrogen bond donors, are chosen for this purpose.