Chemical Double‐Mutant Cycles for the Measurement of Weak Intermolecular Interactions: Edge‐to‐Face Aromatic Interactions

Abstract

Quantitative descriptions of complex recognition processes rely on the measurement of the magnitude of weak intermolecular interactions such as the π-π interaction between arene units. In one approach thermodynamic cycles of compounds with structural variations (mutations) are constructed. The association energy ΔG for the edge-to-face π-π interaction in complex 1 was determined to be 1.4±0.8 kJ mol−1.