Effects of fluorine substitution on the edge-to-face interaction of the benzene dimer

Potential energy curves for the interaction energies of a set of edge-to-face fluorine substituted benzene dimers is studied in an attempt to clarify the counterintuitive role of fluorination on the aromatic interactions found within the N-(4-sulfamylbenzoyl)benzylamine-Human Carbonic Anhydrase II (SBB-HCAII) complex. However, findings do not explain the crystallographic findings for the SBB-HCAII protein-ligand complex, where increased fluorination resulted in closer edge-to-face contacts, suggesting that there are factors, other than edge-to-face aromatic interactions, influencing the system's behavior.