Polarisation of Electron Density and Electronic Effects: Revisiting the Carbon–Halogen Bonds

Abstract

Electronic effects (inductive and mesomeric) are of fundamental importance to understand the reactivity and selectivity of a molecule. In this article, polarisation temperature is used as a principal index to describe how electronic effects propagate in halogeno-alkanes and halogeno-alkenes. It is found that as chain length increases, polarisation temperature decreases. As expected, polarisation is much larger for alkenes than for alkanes. Finally, the polarisation mode of the carbon–fluorine bond is found to be quite different and might explain the unusual reactivity of fluoride compounds.

Keywords

• electron polarisation
• conceptual DFT
• reactivity/selectivity descriptors
• chemical bonding