Strong Hydrogen Bonds Are Not Shielded in Ionic Liquids

Hydrogen bonds are arguably the most important of noncovalent interactions. The physical properties of water and the information storage in DNA depend on H-bonding, for instance. To this day, the balance between the Coulombic and covalent contributions to H-bonds is still under debate. Here, we show that H-bonded host-guest systems associate in ionic liquids, pure salts with melting point below room temperature, in which dipole-dipole electrostatic interactions should be negligible in comparison with dipole-charge interactions. Binding constants (<i>K</i>_a) obtained from titrations of four H-bonded host-guest systems in two organic solvents and two ionic liquids yield smaller yet comparable <i>K</i>_avalues in ionic liquids than in organic solvents. We also detect the association event using force spectroscopy. Our results indicate that strong H-bonds are only moderately affected by surroundings composed entirely of charges, suggesting that the balance of Coulombic to covalent forces is not tipped towards the former.