Ab initio study of benzene-BX3 (X = H, F, Cl) interactions

Research was conducted to predict the binding energies and geometries of benzene-BX3 and ethene-BX3 complexes using quantum mechanical ab initio calculations. Single point measurements at a much higher correlation level and larger basis sets were also performed. Results based on binding energies indicate that all the complexes were weakly bound van der Waals complexes except for the C2H4-BH3 complex. There was also a strong evidence of an unusual increase in the nucleophilicity of one of the benzene carbons in the lowest energy conformer of systems involving benzene.