The halogen bond (XB) is a topical noncovalent interaction of rapidly increasing importance. The XB employs a `soft' donor atom in comparison to the `hard' proton of the hydrogen bond (HB). This difference has led to the hypothesis that XBs can form more favorable interactions with `soft' bases than HBs. While computational studies have supported this suggestion, solution and solid-state data are lacking. Here, XB soft–soft complementarity is investigated with a bidentate receptor that shows similar associations with neutral carbonyls and heavy chalcogen analogs. The solution speciation and XB soft–soft complementarity is supported by four crystal structures containing neutral and anionic soft Lewis bases.

A family of pyridyl-functionalized arylacetylene C–H hydrogen bonding (HB) receptors were synthesized and binding interactions to perrhenate (ReO4–) studied in the solid state. The protonation and alkylation state of the pyridine nitrogen dictate the location and denticity of the interactions. X-ray structures of neutral 1 and singly charged 2a+·ReO4– reveal the formation of favorable self-complementary dimers, owing to the presence of nitrogen HB acceptor sites. Dismissal of these dimers upon elimination of nitrogen HB acceptors on the receptor result in an array of multidentate C–H HB receptor–guest contacts.

1H NMR spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic investigations of a 1,3-bis(4-ethynyl-3-iodopyridinium)benzene scaffold with perrhenate reveal strong halogen bonding in solution, and bidentate association in the solid state. A nearly isostructural host molecule demonstrates significant C–H hydrogen bonding to perrhenate in the same phases.

1H NMR spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic investigations of a 1,3-bis(4-ethynyl-3-iodopyridinium)benzene scaffold with perrhenate reveal strong halogen bonding in solution, and bidentate association in the solid state. A nearly isostructural host molecule demonstrates significant C–H hydrogen bonding to perrhenate in the same phases.