Despite the immense growth in interest in difluoroborate dyes, the nature of the interactions of the boron atom within the N-BF2 -O kernel is not yet fully understood. Herein, a set of real-space bonding indicators is used to quantify the electronic characteristics of the dative N-B bond in difluoroborate derivatives. The atoms-in-molecules (AIM) partitioning scheme is complemented by the electron localizability indicator (ELI-D) approach, and both were applied to experimental and theoretical electron-density distributions (X-ray constrained wavefunction fitting vs. DFT calculations). Additionally, Fermi orbital analysis was introduced for small DFT models to support and extend the findings for structures that contain BF2 .
Keywords: Fermi orbitals; boron; chemical bonding; dative bonds; quantum chemistry.
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