Novel halogenated aromatic dichlorodiazadienes were prepared via copper-mediated oxidative coupling between the corresponding hydrazones and CCl4. These rare azo-dyes were characterized using 1H and 13C NMR techniques and X-ray diffraction analysis for five halogenated dichlorodiazadienes. Multiple non-covalent halogen···halogen interactions were detected in the solid state and studied by DFT calculations and topological analysis of the electron density distribution within the framework of Bader's theory (QTAIM method). Theoretical studies demonstrated that non-covalent halogen···halogen interactions play crucial role in self-assembly of highly polarizable dichlorodiazadienes. Thus, halogen bonding can dictate a packing preference in the solid state for this class of dichloro-substituted heterodienes, which could be a convenient tool for a fine tuning of the properties of this novel class of dyes.
Keywords: DFT; QTAIM; azo dyes; crystal engineering; halogen bonding; non-covalent interactions.