On Friday November 7th, I attended a
seminar presented by Dr. Bill Pennington. He discussed different topics such as
Halogen bonding, X-bonding Periodic, polyiodides, and metapolyiodides. The
center of attention of the seminar was mostly on halogen bonding therefore I
focused on what is halogen bonding and its importance. Halogen bonding is very
similar to hydrogen bonding which relates to us because none of us would
exist without hydrogen bonding says Dr. Pennington. Halogen bonding are very
strong bonds and it was recognized as early as 1863. Halogen bonds is when you
have halides such as chlorine and bromide interacting with
hydrogen's. The hydrogen in this case is the is the electron pair acceptor
and the halide is the electron pair donor thus creating a halogen bond! Halogen
bonding increase in strength going down the seventh column of the periodic
table. These type of bonds can be found in biological molecules such as in
thyroid hormone receptors. Dr. Pennington stated " If we did not have
halogen bonding we would still exist but not function properly as we normally
do." In X-bonding the majority of these type of bonding that are studied
are nitrogen or oxygen. Nitrogen and oxygen serve as excellent halogen bonding
acceptors as well as they are great hydrogen bonding acceptors. Heavier
congeners such as sulfur, selenium, and phosphorus are also excellent halogen
bonding acceptor but they are poorer in hydrogen acceptors. All in all halogen
has a greater importance than we know, it is used all around us as well as
biologically inside of us.
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| The image above is illustrating that CF4 has a weaker halogen bond than CF3I.
Picture obtained:
http://www.halogenbonding.eu/img/fig1.jpg
|
I learned about Halogen bonding in Inorganic, but I never knew that it was important biologically. You mentioned that Dr. Pennington said we would not function properly without hydrogen bonding, and that makes me want to understand on a deeper context what exactly is he speaking of. It's just mind blowing that H-X [X=F, Br, Cl, I] can mean that we won't function well biologically.
ReplyDeleteI found this very interesting too and I recognized the halogen bonding of CF3Cl from inorganic chemistry. They are classify as pollutants if I recall correctly. It makes sense that we will not function correctly without them because halogens are highly important in cell signaling proccesses especially chlorine.
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