Ab initio molecular orbital theory has been used to compute the properties of a number of hydrogen-bonded complexes between fluoroacetylene as proton donor and ammonia, water, hydrogen fluoride, phosphine, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrogen chloride as proton acceptors. The properties considered were the vibrational spectra, the molecular structures, the hydrogen-bond energies, and the electron densities, and one of the aims of the study was to ascertain whether there was any evidence of blue-shifting hydrogen-bond character in the complexes formed. The adducts with NH3, H2O, PH3, and H2S were of the conventional CH···X kind (X = N, O, P, S), with hydrogen-bond energies decreasing in the order NH3 > H2O > PH3 ≈ H2S. Those formed with HF and HCl showed the presence of three alternative structures; in addition to the CH···F(Cl) complexes, adducts of the F(Cl)H···F and F(Cl)H···π type were also found to be stationary points on the potential energy surfaces, with stabilities in the order F(Cl)H···π > CH···F(Cl) > F(Cl)H···F. The hydrogen-bond energies of the CH···X series correlated with the gas-phase basicities of the proton acceptors; moreover, the CH bond-length changes, the wavenumber shifts, the complex–monomer infrared intensity ratios of the CH stretching modes, and the amounts of charge transferred on complex formation were all found to track with the hydrogen-bond energies. All those properties considered here are consistent with the formation of red-shifting hydrogen bonds, to the exclusion of the blue-shifting alternatives.
