Cluster-Continuum Calculations of Hydration Free Energies of Anions and Group 12 Divalent Cations
- ORNL
Understanding aqueous phase processes involving group 12 metal cations is relevant to both environmental and biological sciences. Here, quantum chemical methods and polarizable continuum models are used to compute the hydration free energies of a series of divalent group 12 metal cations (Zn2+, Cd2+, and Hg2+) together with Cu2+ and the anions OH , SH , Cl , and F . A cluster-continuum method is employed, in which gas-phase clusters of the ion and explicit solvent molecules are immersed in a dielectric continuum. Two approaches to define the size of the solute-water cluster are compared, in which the number of explicit waters used is either held constant or determined variationally as that of the most favorable hydration free energy. Results obtained with various polarizable continuum models are also presented. Each leg of the relevant thermodynamic cycle is analyzed in detail to determine how different contributions yield the observed mean signed error (MSE) and the standard deviation of the error (STDEV) between theory and experiment. The use of a constant number of water molecules for each set of ions is found to lead to predicted relative trends that benefit from error cancellation. Overall, the best results are obtained with MP2 and the Solvent Model D polarizable continuum model (SMD), with eight explicit water molecules for anions and ten for the metal cations, yielding a STDEV of 2.3 kcal/mol and MSE of 0.9 kcal/mol between theoretical to experimental hydration free energies, which range from -72.4 kcal/mol for SH to -505.9 kcal/mol for Cu2+. Using B3PW91 with DFT-D3 dispersion corrections (B3PW91-D) and SMD yields a STDEV of 3.3 kcal mol 1 and MSE of 1.6 kcal/mol, to which adding MP2 corrections from smaller divalent metal ion water molecule clusters yields very good agreement with the full MP2 results. Using B3PW91-D and SMD, with two explicit water molecules for anions and six for divalent metal cations also yields reasonable agreement with experiment, due in part to fortuitous error cancellation associated with the metal cations. Overall, the results indicate that the careful application of quantum chemical cluster-continuum methods provides valuable insights into aqueous ionic processes that depend on both local and long-range electrostatic interactions with the solvent.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1083713
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Vol. 9, Issue 1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Universal Solvation Model Based on Solute Electron Density and on a Continuum Model of the Solvent Defined by the Bulk Dielectric Constant and Atomic Surface Tensions
Quantum Chemical Calculation of pKas of Environmentally Relevant Functional Groups: Carboxylic Acids, Amines, and Thiols in Aqueous Solution