1st International Conference on Noncovalent Interactions

Inter- and intramolecular noncovalent interactions are fundamental aspects of chemical and biological processes, and can provide a backbone for biomolecular and material structures. These weak forces were first considered by van der Waals in 1873 when adapting the ideal gas equation of state for real gases,¹ and follow a broad range of classifications depending on their nature, origin and strength: hydrogen, noble gases, halogen, chalcogen, pnictogen, tetrel and triel bonds, as well as cation–π, anion–π, lone pair–π, π–π stacking, agostic, pseudo-agostic, anagostic, dispersion-driven, lipophilic, etc. An in-depth understanding and control of these weak interactions may provide new opportunities in the design of efficient catalysts, functional materials, drugs, etc.

As the field of noncovalent interactions has grown intensively in recent decades, several books have been published by Wiley,² the Royal Society of Chemistry,³ Elsevier,⁴ Oxford University Press⁵ and Springer,⁶ and several thematic issues on these weak forces have appeared in Chemical Reviews in 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2016.⁷

Hydrogen and halogen bonds have already been defined by IUPAC (Recommendations 2011 and 2013, respectively),^8,9 and the definitions for chalcogen, pnictogen and tetrel bonds are in progress.¹⁰ Moreover, international conferences/symposia on Supramolecular Chemistry and particular types of noncovalent interactions have been organized, such as the International Conference on “Horizons in Hydrogen Bond Research” (established by Prof. Lucjan Sobczyk in Poland in 1977), the International Symposium on Halogen Bonding [established by Prof. Pierangelo Metrangolo and Prof. Giuseppe Resnati in Porto Cesareo (Lecce, Italy) in 2014], etc.

Thus, the chemistry of this century is expected to largely involve noncovalent interactions, and it is timely to establish a general/regular series of International Conferences on Noncovalent Interactions (ICNI), with the first one being held on 2–6 September 2019 in Lisbon: https://icni2019.eventos.chemistry.pt/#page-top

Further conferences within this series will follow every two years, in odd number years (2021, 2023, etc.). The International Advisory Board members of ICNI are well recognized scientists in this field,¹¹ representing Europe, Asia, Africa and America (Table 1). ICNI has already been recognized by IUPAC for endorsement, although without financial support.¹²

Table 1 International Advisory Board

Prof. Elangannan Arunan	Indian Institute of Science, India
Prof. Dario Braga	University of Bologna, Italy
Prof. Pierre Braunstein	University of Strasbourg, France
Prof. Antonio Caballero	Universidad de Murcia, Spain
Prof. Jean-Francois Carpentier	CNRS-Université de Rennes 1, France
Prof. Scott L. Cockroft	University of Edinburgh, UK
Prof. Debbie C. Crans	Colorado State University, USA
Prof. Jean-Pierre Djukic	University of Strasbourg, France
Prof. M. Teresa Duarte	University of Lisbon, Portugal
Prof. Catharine Esterhuysen	Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Prof. Antonio Frontera	Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain
Prof. Philip A. Gale	University of Sydney, Australia
Prof. Michael K. Gilson	University of California San Diego, USA
Prof. Fabrizia Grepioni	University of Bologna, Italy
Prof. M. Fátima C. Guedes da Silva	University of Lisbon, Portugal
Prof. Akira Harada	Osaka University, Japan
Prof. Matti Haukka	University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Prof. Pavel Hobza	Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
Prof. Feihe Huang	Zhejiang University, China
Prof. Wei Jun Jin	Beijing Normal University, China
Prof. Susumu Kitagawa	Kyoto University, Japan
Dr Maximilian N. Kopylovich	University of Lisbon, Portugal
Prof. Vadim Yu. Kukushkin	Saint Petersburg State University, Russian Federation
Prof. Yu Liu	Nankai University, China
Prof. Jan Lundell	University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Prof. Abel M. Maharramov	Baku State University, Azerbaijan
Dr Kamran T. Mahmudov	University of Lisbon, Portugal
Prof. Stefan Matile	University of Geneva, Switzerland
Prof. Pierangelo Metrangolo	Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Prof. Marta E. G. Mosquera	Universidad de Alcala, Spain
Prof. Djamaladdin G. Musaev	Emory University, USA
Prof. Dana Nachtigallova	Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
Prof. G. Narahari Sastry	CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, India
Prof. Werner M. Nau	Jacobs University Bremen, Germany
Prof. Armando J. L. Pombeiro	University of Lisbon, Portugal
Prof. Giuseppe Resnati	Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Prof. Steve Scheiner	Utah State University, USA
Prof. Hans-Jörg Schneider	Organische Chemie der Universität des Saarlandes, Germany
Prof. Elena S. Shubina	Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation
Prof. Anthony Stone	University of Cambridge, UK
Prof. Edward R. T. Tiekink	Sunway University, Malaysia
Prof. F. Dean Toste	University of California, USA
Prof. Leyong Wang	Nanjing University, China
Prof. Andrew S. Weller	University of Oxford, UK
Prof. Steven E. Wheeler	University of Georgia, USA
Prof. Snežana D. Zarić	University of Belgrade, Serbia

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The conference aims to highlight the role of noncovalent interactions in synthesis, catalysis, crystal engineering, molecular recognition, medicinal chemistry, biology, materials science, electrochemical immobilization, etc., also including theoretical aspects. All approaches are considered, from fundamental to applied ones, including discussion of new types of noncovalent interactions (noble gases, halogen, chalcogen, pnictogen, tetrel and triel bonds) and multidisciplinary studies.

Due to the broad/multidisciplinary character of noncovalent interactions, we proposed establishing a themed collection (named “1st International Conference on Noncovalent Interactions”) to be published in various RSC journals. The selected topics reflect the current trends in weak bonding chemistry. Each article is peer reviewed as for regular submissions.

We believe that the material covered herein will be instructive to researchers, students and newcomers in the fields of noncovalent chemistry and related interdisciplinary subjects.

Finally, we warmly thank the participating authors and the reviewers for their contributions, and Dr Mike Andrews (RSC) for his help with organizing this themed collection.

References

1. J. D. van der Waals, Over de Continuïteit van den Gas-en Vloeistoftoestand (On the continuity of the gaseous and liquid state), PhD dissertation, University of Leiden, 1873.
2. (a) Noncovalent interactions in the synthesis and design of new compounds, ed. A. M. Maharramov, K. T. Mahmudov, M. N. Kopylovich and A. J. L. Pombeiro, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2016; (b) Hydrogen bonding in organic synthesis, ed. P. M. Pihko, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2009.
3. (a) Noncovalent interactions in catalysis, ed. K. T. Mahmudov, M. N. Kopylovich, M. F. C. Guedes da Silva and A. J. L. Pombeiro, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, 2019; (b) Understanding intermolecular interactions in the solid state: approaches and techniques, ed. D. Chopra, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, 2018; (c) P. Hobza and K. Müller-Dethlefs, Noncovalent interactions: theory and experiment, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, 2010.
4. Noncovalent interactions in quantum chemistry and physics, ed. A. O. de la Roza and G. DiLabio, Elsevier, The Netherlands, 2017.
5. (a) A. J. Stone, The theory of intermolecular forces, Oxford University Press, UK, 2013; (b) G. Gilli and P. Gilli, The nature of the hydrogen bond, Oxford University Press, USA, 2009; (c) G. R. Desiraju and T. Steiner, The weak hydrogen bond in structural chemistry and biology, Oxford University Press Inc., New York, 1999; (d) G. A. Jeffrey, An introduction to hydrogen bonding, Oxford University Press, New York, 1997.
6. (a) Noncovalent forces, ed. S. Scheiner, Springer, Dordrecht, 2015; (b) A. K. Baev, Specific intermolecular interactions of organic compounds, Springer, 2012; (c) P. Metrangolo and G. Resnati, Halogen bonding: fundamentals and applications (structure and bonding), Springer, Heidelberg, 2010.
7. P. Hobza and J. Řezáč, Chem. Rev., 2016, 116, 4911.
8. E. Arunan, G. R. Desiraju, R. A. Klein, J. Sadlej, S. Scheiner, I. Alkorta, D. C. Clary, R. H. Crabtree, J. J. Dannenberg, P. Hobza, H. G. Kjaergaard, A. C. Legon, B. Mennucci and D. J. Nesbitt, Pure Appl. Chem., 2011, 83, 1637.
9. G. R. Desiraju, P. S. Ho, L. Kloo, A. C. Legon, R. Marquardt, P. Metrangolo, P. Politzer, G. Resnati and K. Rissanen, Pure Appl. Chem., 2013, 85, 1711.
10. (a) IUPAC Workshop@ISXB-3, Interactions Involving Group 14–16 Elements as Electrophilic Sites: A World Parallel to Halogen Bond, 9th–10th June 2018, Greenville, SC, USA; (b) G. Cavallo, P. Metrangolo, T. Pilati, G. Resnati and G. Terraneo, Cryst. Growth Des., 2014, 14, 2697; (c) P. Scilabra, G. Terraneo and G. Resnati, Acc. Chem. Res., 2019, 52, 1313; (d) https://iupac.org/definition-of-the-chalcogen-bond/ .
11. http://icni2019.eventos.chemistry.pt/ .
12. https://iupac.org/event/1st-international-conference-on-noncovalent-interactions-icni/ .

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