From fluorine chemistry to noncovalent interactions: celebrating Prof. Giuseppe Resnati

It is a great pleasure and honor for us to introduce the themed collection “From fluorine chemistry to noncovalent interactions: celebrating Prof. Giuseppe Resnati”, which is dedicated to the occasion of the 70^th birthday of our friend Professor Resnati and published in the following Royal Society of Chemistry journals: CrystEngComm, New Journal of Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

Prof. Resnati was born on 26 August 1955 in Monza, Italy. He obtained his PhD in organic chemistry at the Politecnico di Milano in 1986 with Prof. Carlo Scolastico and a thesis on asymmetric synthesis via chiral sulfoxides.

He started his scientific career as a research assistant in the Department of Chemical Research and Development, Farmitalia Carlo Erba, Milan (1980–1982). After a long period of research activity at the Italian National Research Council (1982–1998), he was appointed as an associate professor (1998–2001) and a full professor (2001) at the Politecnico di Milano. Between 1990 and 1991, he carried out research with a NATO senior fellowship at the University of Clemson, USA, with Prof. Darry D. DesMarteau. He has held honorary, visiting, or similar professorships at Université Paris Sud-XI (1996), Nagoya University (2001), and Université de Strasbourg (2012). Since 2015, he has been a member of the Academia Europaea.

Among others, he has received the Intermolecular Interactions and Structural Aspects in Organic Chemistry Award (Italian Chemical Society, 2008), the European Lectureship in Chemical Sciences Award (RSC, UK, 2010), and the van der Waals Prize 2021 (2^nd International Conference on Noncovalent Interactions, ICNI-2022).¹

He has served as an editorial board member for various scientific journals, such as Crystal Growth & Design (ACS, 2012–present), Journal of Fluorine Chemistry (Elsevier, 2001–2023), II Farmaco (Elsevier, 1990–2002), and Crystals (MDPI, 2016–present). He has also served as a guest editor of books, such as Halogen Bonding: Impact on Materials Chemistry and Life Sciences, vol. 1 and 2 (Springer, 2014 and 2014),² and of several special issues in international journals, including Tetrahedron (1996);³ Journal of Fluorine Chemistry (1996 and 2004);^4,5 CrystEngComm (2013);⁶ Crystal Growth and Design (2017 and 2023);^7,8 New Journal of Chemistry (2018);⁹ and Coordination Chemistry Reviews (2020).¹⁰

Professor Resnati is a co-founder of the International Symposium on Halogen Bonding (ISXB) and co-chaired (with Prof. Pierangelo Metrangolo, Politecnico di Milano, Italy) the first one, which was held in 2014 (Porto Cesareo, Lecce, Italy). Moreover, he has been very active in the organization of international events, such as the 234^th and 238^th ACS National Meetings (Boston, USA, 2007 and Washington, USA, 2009), the 25^th, 26^th, and 31^st European Crystallography Meetings (Istanbul, Turkey, 2009; Darmstadt, Germany, 2010; and Oviedo, Spain, 2018), the XXII and XXV Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography meetings (Madrid, Spain, 2011; Prague, the Czech Republic, 2021). He is, or has been, in the international advisory board member of various international conferences, including, among others, ISXB (2014–present), the International Symposium of Fluorine Chemistry (1997–present), the European Symposium of Fluorine Chemistry (1995–present); and the International Conference on Noncovalent Interactions (2019–present).

He started his research career in fluorine chemistry, in particular the asymmetric synthesis of selectively fluorinated compounds endowed with biological and/or pharmacological relevance. With his results, he contributed significantly to the understanding of the strategic role of introducing fluorine in drugs and bio-compounds, reporting the first case in which fluorine in a drug mimics, in vivo and in vitro, a hydroxy group and demonstrates its ability to act as a hydrogen-bond acceptor.¹¹ His research interests have focused on fluorous chemistry, namely the unique opportunities offered by reagents bearing perfluoroalkyl chains. He introduced the first fluorous reagent, perfluoro-cis-2,3-dialkyloxaziridenes, and proved that these oxidizing agents were powerful enough to perform the enantiospecific oxyfuntionalization of nonactivated hydrocarbon sites,¹² but selective enough to oxidize sulfides to sulfoxides with no sulfone formation.¹³ In recognition of his exceptional contribution to fluorine chemistry, Prof. Resnati was appointed the chairman of the 21^st International Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry (Como, Italy, 2015).

Another important direction of Prof. Resnati’s research concerns noncovalent interactions; indeed he is one of the world’s key scientists in this field, as evidenced by the categorization of weak bonds¹⁴ and the contributions to this themed collection from many different countries around the world. Prof. Resnati has served the scientific community as co-chair (with Prof. Metrangolo) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Task Groups, leading the efforts that established the official definitions of the halogen bond (HaB),¹⁵ chalcogen bond (ChB)¹⁶ and pnictogen bond (PnB).¹⁷ His research group has carried out pioneering work in the study of halogen bonding in self-assembly phenomena, crystal engineering, liquid crystals, molecular recognition, supramolecular resolution, non-linear optical materials, organic dynamic porous networks, etc.¹⁸ The nature and role of weak interactions involving fluorous molecules and aromatic molecules have been investigated using combined theoretical and experimental crystallographic methods. His group, among others, has shown that the fluorine atom can act as a halogen bond donor and form complexes with lone-pair-containing neutral atoms and anions. Beyond halogen bonding alone, its cooperation with other weak interactions or coordination bonds has been used in the construction of new solid materials.

Professor Resnati is a famous advocate of the modern concept of chemical bonding.¹⁴ In addition to established interactions such as the halogen bond (HaB), chalcogen bond (ChB), pnicogen bond (PnB), tetrel bond (TtB), and triel bond (TrB), he has recently suggested that d-block elements can also act as electrophiles through σ/π-hole interactions. He has played a guiding role in defining new types of chemical bonds, including the erythronium bond (EyB),¹⁹ the matere bond (MaB),²⁰ the osme bond (OmB),²¹ and the titan bond (TnB)²², as well as in advancing concepts such as anion⋯anion self-assembly mediated by σ/π-hole interactions.²³ The clear characterization of the metal centres involved in σ/π-hole interactions by Prof. Resnati has provided new insights into the self-assembly of supramolecular synthons, catalysis, and molecular sensing.

The impressive contributions to this themed collection prove that the chemistry of this century is largely driven by noncovalent interactions,²⁴ with many of them inspired by Prof. Resnati’s research. Like previous landmark themed collections in RSC journals,^6,9,25,26 we believe that this collection will guide a new generation of chemists to investigate the vast and still largely unexplored domain of weak interactions and their applications. Finally, we are deeply grateful to our friends, colleagues and collaborators for their excellent contributions; to the reviewers for their critical suggestions; to the Editors & Associate Editors of CrystEngComm, NJC and PCCP; and to Dr Mike Andrews (Deputy Editor at CrystEngComm) and Dr Samuel Oldknow (Publishing Editor at the RSC) for their professional support.

References

1. S. D. Zarić, Chem. – Eur. J., 2025, 31, e202500428,  DOI:10.1002/chem.202500428.
2. Halogen Bonding: Impact on Materials Chemistry and Life Sciences, ed. P. Metrangolo and G. Resnati, Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, vol. 1, 2014; https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-14057-5, vol. 2, 2015, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-15732-0.
3. G. Resnati and V. A. Soloshonok, Tetrahedron, 1996, 52, xiii,  DOI:10.1016/S0040-4020(96)90061-7.
4. J. P. Bégué and G. Resnati, J. Fluorine Chem., 1996, 80, 1–2,  DOI:10.1016/S0022-1139(96)03449-5.
5. P. Metrangolo and G. Resnati, J. Fluorine Chem., 2004, 125, 135,  DOI:10.1016/j.jfluchem.2003.10.007.
6. W. T. Pennington, G. Resnati and M. S. Taylor, CrystEngComm, 2013, 15, 3057,  10.1039/C3CE90042H.
7. G. Terraneo and G. Resnati, Cryst. Growth Des., 2017, 17, 1439–1440,  DOI:10.1021/acs.cgd.7b00309.
8. D. Chopra, S. P. Thomas and G. Resnati, Cryst. Growth Des., 2023, 23, 3931–3934,  DOI:10.1021/acs.cgd.2c01383.
9. G. Resnati and W. T. Pennington, New J. Chem., 2018, 42, 10461–10462,  10.1039/C8NJ90054J.
10. G. Resnati and P. Metrangolo, Coord. Chem. Rev., 2020, 420, 213409,  DOI:10.1016/j.ccr.2020.213409.
11. P. Bravo, G. Resnati, P. Angeli, M. Frigerio, F. Viani, A. Amone, G. Marucci and F. Cantalamessa, J. Med. Chem., 1992, 35, 3102–3110,  DOI:10.1021/jm00095a003.
12. A. Arnone, S. Foletto, P. Metrangolo, M. Pregnolato and G. Resnati, Org. Lett., 1999, 1, 281–284,  DOI:10.1021/ol990594e.
13. V. A. Petrov and G. Resnati, Chem. Rev., 1996, 96, 1809–1823,  DOI:10.1021/cr941146h.
14. A. Pizzi, G. Terraneo, C. Lo Iacono, R. Beccaria, A. Dhaka and G. Resnati, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2025, 64, e202506525,  DOI:10.1002/anie.202506525.
15. 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, 1711–1713,  DOI:10.1351/PAC-REC-12-05-10.
16. C. B. Aakeröy, D. L. Bryce, G. R. Desiraju, A. Frontera, A. C. Legon, F. Nicotra, K. Rissanen, S. Scheiner, G. Terraneo, P. Metrangolo and G. Resnati, Pure Appl. Chem., 2019, 91, 1889–1892,  DOI:10.1515/pac-2018-0713.
17. G. Resnati, D. L. Bryce, G. R. Desiraju, A. Frontera, I. Krossing, A. C. Legon, P. Metrangolo, F. Nicotra, K. Rissanen, S. Scheiner and G. Terraneo, Pure Appl. Chem., 2024, 96, 135–145,  DOI:10.1515/pac-2020-1002.
18. G. Cavallo, P. Metrangolo, R. Milani, T. Pilati, A. Priimagi, G. Resnati and G. Terraneo, Chem. Rev., 2016, 116, 2478–2601,  DOI:10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00484.
19. M. Calabrese, R. M. Gomila, A. Pizzi, A. Frontera and G. Resnati, Chem. – Eur. J., 2023, 29, e202302176,  DOI:10.1002/chem.202302176.
20. A. Daolio, A. Pizzi, G. Terraneo, A. Frontera and G. Resnati, ChemPhysChem, 2021, 22, 2281–2285,  DOI:10.1002/cphc.202100681.
21. A. Daolio, A. Pizzi, M. Calabrese, G. Terraneo, S. Bordignon, A. Frontera and G. Resnati, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2021, 60, 20723–20727,  DOI:10.1002/anie.202107978.
22. E. Venturin, R. M. Gomila, R. Bertani, A. Pizzi, P. Sgarbossa, A. Dhaka, A. Frontera and G. Resnati, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2025, 64, e202517522,  DOI:10.1002/anie.202517522.
23. A. Pizzi, A. Dhaka, R. Beccaria and G. Resnati, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2024, 53, 6654–6674,  10.1039/D3CS00479A.
24. H. J. Schneider, J. Phys. Org. Chem., 2022, 35, e4340,  DOI:10.1002/poc.4340.
25. K. T. Mahmudov and A. J. L. Pombeiro, New J. Chem., 2019, 43, 13312–13314,  10.1039/C9NJ90113B.
26. A. Weller, Faraday Discuss., 2023, 244, 455–458,  10.1039/D3FD90014B.

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