A survey of supramolecular aggregation based on main group element…selenium secondary bonding interactions—A survey of the crystallographic literature

Abstract

The results of a survey of the crystal structures of main group element compounds (M = tin, lead, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, and tellurium) for intermolecular M…Se secondary bonding interactions is presented. The identified M…Se interactions in 58 crystals can operate independent of conventional supramolecular synthons and can sustain zero-, one-, two, and, rarely, three-dimensional supramolecular architectures, which are shown to adopt a wide variety of topologies. The most popular architecture found in the crystals stabilized by M…Se interactions are one-dimensional chains, found in 50% of the structures, followed by zero-dimensional (38%). In the majority of structures, the metal center forms a single M…Se contact; however, examples having up to three M…Se contacts are evident. Up to about 25% of lead(II)-/selenium-containing crystals exhibit Pb…Se tetrel bonding, a percentage falling off to about 15% in bismuth analogs (that is, pnictogen bonding) and 10% or lower for the other cited elements.