Density Functional Theory and Atoms-in-Molecules Investigation of Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonding in Derivatives of Malonaldehyde and Implications for Resonance-Assisted Hydrogen Bonding

A density functional theory (DFT) and atoms-in-molecules (AIM) analysis has been applied to the intramolecular hydrogen bonding in the enol conformers of malonaldehyde and its fluoro-, chloro-, cyano-, and nitro-substituted derivatives. With the B3LYP/6-311++G(2d,p) method, good agreement between the DFT geometries and published experimental structures has been found. The donor−acceptor distance was also varied in a series of constrained optimizations in order to determine if energetic, structural, and topological trends associated with intermolecular hydrogen bonding remain valid in the intramolecular case. At very short donor−acceptor distances (