Novel Noncovalent Interactions in Catalysis: A Focus on Halogen, Chalcogen, and Anion-pi Bonding

Noncovalent interactions play an important role in many biological and chemical processes. Among these, hydrogen bonding is very well studied and is already routinely used in organocatalysis. This Short Review focuses on three other types of promising noncovalent interactions. Halogen bonding, chalcogen bonding, and anion-pi bonding have been introduced into organocatalysis in the last few years and could become important alternate modes of activation to hydrogen bonding in the future