Can non-polar hydrogen atoms accept hydrogen bonds?Celebrating 300 years of Chemistry at Edinburgh.Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental and computational methods and tabulated data. See DOI: 10.1039/c3cc46048g

We examine an unusual case where a neutral hydrogen atom acts as a hydrogen-bond acceptor. The association constant between trihexylsilane and perfluoro- tert -butanol was measured as ∼0.8 M −1 in cyclohexane. Computations and experimental NMR data are consistent with a weak, but favourable Si-H HO interaction. A combined solution-phase and theoretical investigation reveals that Si-H can act as a fully neutral H-bond acceptor in solution, but only just.