8 Halogens and noble gases

Abstract

Many of the highlights in halogen chemistry this year arise from applications of halogen-containing materials. In particular, halogen bonding has moved from being an area of essentially academic interest to a topic with an ever-increasing range of applications. Thus, the shortest N⋯I halogen bond to date has been reported and the use of halogen bonding to control and direct both architecture and chemistry has been described. For the noble gases, the first metal ion homoleptically coordinated to XeF₂ ligands has been reported and the application of noble gas compounds as novel oxidising agents has resulted in the first structurally characterised CX₃⁺ (X = Cl, Br) systems.