Hydrogen bond
Hydrogen bonds can vary in strength from weak (1–2 kJ mol) to strong (161.5 kJ mol in the ion ). Typical enthalpies in vapor include:
Hydrogen-bond catalysis
In general, acidity of donor sites correlates well with the strength of the donor. For example, it is a common strategy to add electron-withdrawing aryl substituents on a thiourea catalyst, which can increase its acidity and thus the strength of its hydrogen bonding. However, it is still unclear how donor strength correlates with desired reactivity. Importantly, more acidic catalysts are not necessarily more effective. For instance, ureas are less acidic than thioureas by roughly 6 pKa units, but it is not generally true that ureas are significantly worse are catalyzing reactions.