The Nitrogen Bond, or the Nitrogen-Centered Pnictogen Bond: The Covalently Bound Nitrogen Atom in Molecular Entities and Crystals as a Pnictogen Bond Donor

The nitrogen bond in chemical systems occurs when there is evidence of a net attractive interaction between the electrophilic region associated with a covalently or coordinately bound nitrogen atom in a molecular entity and a nucleophile in another, or the same molecular entity. It is the first member of the family of pnictogen bonds formed by the first atom of the pnictogen family, Group 15, of the periodic table, and is an inter- or intra-molecular non-covalent interaction. In this featured review, we present several illustrative crystal structures deposited in the Cambridge Structure Database (CSD) and the Inorganic Crystal Structure Databases (ICSD) to demonstrate that imide nitrogen is not the only instance where nitrogen can act as an electrophilic agent. Analysis of a set of carefully chosen illustrative crystal systems shows that a covalently bound nitrogen atom in a variety of molecular entities features a σ-hole or even a π-hole, and these have the ability to sustain attractive engagements with negative sites to form inter- and/or intramolecular interactions that drive, or assist, the formation of a crystalline phase.