Issue 22, 2018

The effect of hydration on the electronic structure and stability of the superalkali cation Li3+

Abstract

The interaction of the superalkali cation Li3+ with water molecules, as well as the structures and stability of the resulting water complexes are theoretically studied at the MP2/6-311++G(d,p) level. A great number of geometrical configurations were obtained for the Li3+(H2O)n (n = 1–5) complexes and Li3+ is found to have a maximum coordination number of four. Natural population analysis shows that the charge distribution of Li3+ becomes seriously uneven upon interaction with five water molecules, so it loses ring conjugation and splits in the lowest-energy isomer of Li3+(H2O)5. Localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis indicates a dominant contribution of electrostatic interactions to the binding of water molecules to Li3+, which is similar to the case of lithium ion hydrates. However, as the number of water ligands reaches five, the contribution of the exchange-repulsion energy exhibits a sharp increase and even exceeds that of the electrostatic term.

Graphical abstract: The effect of hydration on the electronic structure and stability of the superalkali cation Li3+

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Feb 2018
Accepted
02 May 2018
First published
02 May 2018

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2018,20, 15174-15182

The effect of hydration on the electronic structure and stability of the superalkali cation Li3+

J. Hou, D. Wu, J. Liu, S. Li, D. Yu and Y. Li, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2018, 20, 15174 DOI: 10.1039/C8CP00862K

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