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.