DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Identification of ion-pair structures in solution by vibrational stark effects

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. B, Condensed Matter, Materials, Surfaces, Interfaces and Biophysical Chemistry
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
  2. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Here, ion pairing is a fundamental consideration in many areas of chemistry and has implications in a wide range of sciences and technologies that include batteries and organic photovoltaics. Ions in solution are known to inhabit multiple possible states, including free ions (FI), contact ion pairs (CIP), and solvent-separated ion pairs (SSIP). However, in solutions of organic radicals and nonmetal electrolytes, it is often difficult to distinguish between these states. In the first part of this work, we report evidence for the formation of SSIPs in low-polarity solvents and distinct measurements of CIP, SSIP, and FI, by using the ν(C≡N) infrared (IR) band of a nitrile-substituted fluorene radical anion. Use of time-resolved IR detection following pulse radiolysis allowed us to unambiguously assign the peak of the FI. In the presence of nonmetal electrolytes, two distinct red-shifted peaks were observed and assigned to the CIP and SSIP. The assignments are interpreted in the framework of the vibrational Stark effect (VSE) and are supported by (1) the solvent dependence of ion-pair populations, (2) the observation of a cryptand-separated sodium ion pair that mimics the formation of SSIPs, and (3) electronic structure calculations. In the second part of this work, we show that a blue-shift of the ν(C≡N) IR band due to the VSE can be induced in a nitrile-substituted fluorene radical anion by covalently tethering it to a metal-chelating ligand that forms an intramolecular ion pair upon reduction and complexation with sodium ion. This adds support to the conclusion that the shift in IR absorptions by ion pairing originates from the VSE. These results combined show that we can identify ion-pair structures by using the VSE, including the existence of SSIPs in a low-polarity solvent.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
OSTI ID:
1247984
Report Number(s):
BNL--112077-2016-JA; KC0304030
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. B, Condensed Matter, Materials, Surfaces, Interfaces and Biophysical Chemistry, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry. B, Condensed Matter, Materials, Surfaces, Interfaces and Biophysical Chemistry Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 120; ISSN 1520-6106
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (60)

Structure of Ion Pair Solvation Complexes journal February 1972
Penetrated Ion Pairs: a New Form of Ion Pair journal June 1992
Equilibrium of Contact and Solvent-Separated Ion Pairs in Mixtures of Protic Ionic Liquids and Molecular Solvents Controlled by Polarity journal October 2013
Real‐Time Probing of Ion Pairing Dynamics with 2DIR Spectroscopy journal November 2010
Ion Pairing in Protic Ionic Liquids Probed by Far-Infrared Spectroscopy: Effects of Solvent Polarity and Temperature journal June 2014
Energies, structures, and electronic properties of molecules in solution with the C-PCM solvation model journal April 2003
Tetraalkylammonium Ions in Aqueous and Non-aqueous Solutions journal June 2008
Electrostatic stabilization in non-aqueous media journal October 1992
A new method for incorporating solvent effect into the classical, ab initio molecular orbital and density functional theory frameworks for arbitrary shape cavity journal June 1995
Synthesis and properties of crown ether-modified phosphines and their use as ligands in transition metal catalysts journal May 1988
Electrostatic interaction of a solute with a continuum. A direct utilizaion of AB initio molecular potentials for the prevision of solvent effects journal February 1981
Tetraalkylammonium ions are surrounded by an inner solvation shell in strong electron pair donor solvents journal February 2009
Computational studies of ion pairing. 9. The “steric” effect of tetraalkylammonium ions with electrochemically generated anions is not steric journal October 2013
Investigations of bimolecular photoinduced electron transfer reactions in polar solvents using ultrafast spectroscopy journal April 2006
Comparison of the Conductivity Properties of the Tetrabutylammonium Salt of Tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate Anion with Those of Traditional Supporting Electrolyte Anions in Nonaqueous Solvents journal November 2004
Interpretation of Data Obtained in Nonaqueous Media journal November 1954
Understanding and Manipulating Electrostatic Fields at the Protein–Protein Interface Using Vibrational Spectroscopy and Continuum Electrostatics Calculations journal October 2015
Ions and ion pairs journal March 1969
Measuring Electric Fields and Noncovalent Interactions Using the Vibrational Stark Effect journal March 2015
Crown Ethers:  Sensors for Ions and Molecular Scaffolds for Materials and Biological Models journal May 2004
Ion Pairing journal November 2006
One-Electron and Two-Electron Transfers in Electrochemistry and Homogeneous Solution Reactions journal July 2008
Quantum Mechanical Continuum Solvation Models journal August 2005
Ab Initio Calculation of Vibrational Absorption and Circular Dichroism Spectra Using Density Functional Force Fields journal November 1994
Ionic radii from scaled particle theory of the salt effect journal September 1971
Penetrated ion pairs: photochemistry of cyanine dyes within organic borates journal January 1992
The Chemistry of the Radical Anion of Tetraphenylethylene journal December 1965
Studies of Contact and Solvent-Separated Ion Pairs of Carbanions. I. Effect of Temperature, Counterion, and Solvent journal January 1966
Cyclic polyethers and their complexes with metal salts journal May 1967
Cyclic polyethers and their complexes with metal salts journal December 1967
Ionic Association. III. The Equilibrium between Ion Pairs and Free Ions journal October 1958
Salt Effects and Ion Pairs in Solvolysis and Related Reactions. III. 1 Common Ion Rate Depression and Exchange of Anions during Acetolysis 2,3 journal January 1956
Electrolyte-solvent Interaction. IV. Tetrabutylammonium Bromide in Methanol-Carbon Tetrachloride and Methanol-Heptane Mixtures journal December 1954
“Separated” versus “Contact” Ion-Pair Structures in Solution from Their Crystalline States:  Dynamic Effects on Dinitrobenzenide as a Mixed-Valence Anion journal February 2005
Crystallographic Distinction between “Contact” and “Separated” Ion Pairs:  Structural Effects on Electronic/ESR Spectra of Alkali-Metal Nitrobenzenides journal April 2004
Quinones as Electron Acceptors. X-Ray Structures, Spectral (EPR, UV−vis) Characteristics and Electron-Transfer Reactivities of Their Reduced Anion Radicals as Separated vs Contact Ion Pairs journal December 2006
Ultrafast Vibrational Stark-Effect Spectroscopy: Exploring Charge-Transfer Reactions by Directly Monitoring the Solvation Shell Response journal September 2010
Vibrational Stark Effects To Identify Ion Pairing and Determine Reduction Potentials in Electrolyte-Free Environments journal January 2015
Electron Localization of Anions Probed by Nitrile Vibrations journal August 2015
Computational Studies of Ion Pairing. 10. Ion Pairing between Tetrabutylammonium ion and Inorganic Ions: A General Motif Confirmed journal April 2015
Vibrational Stark Effects of Nitriles I. Methods and Experimental Results journal December 2000
Effect of Ion Pairing on the Mechanism and Rate of Electron Transfer. Electrochemical Aspects journal August 2001
Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of Charged Oligofluorenes Studied by VIS/NIR Spectroscopy and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory journal March 2006
Solvent-Induced Infrared Frequency Shifts in Aromatic Nitriles Are Quantitatively Described by the Vibrational Stark Effect journal April 2012
Benzonitrile as a Probe of Local Environment in Ionic Liquids journal February 2013
Role of Bad Dihedral Angles: Methylfluorenes Act as Energy Barriers for Excitons and Polarons of Oligofluorenes journal September 2014
Dynamics of Radical Ion Pairs following Photoinduced Electron Transfer in Solvents with Low and Intermediate Polarities journal December 2014
Thiocyanate as a Local Probe of Ultrafast Structure and Dynamics in Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids: Water-Induced Heterogeneity and Cation-Induced Ion Pairing journal March 2015
Stark Realities journal March 2009
Quantum Calculation of Molecular Energies and Energy Gradients in Solution by a Conductor Solvent Model journal March 1998
Ultrafast Structure and Dynamics in Ionic Liquids: 2D-IR Spectroscopy Probes the Molecular Origin of Viscosity journal April 2014
Electrochemistry in media of low dielectric constant journal January 1993
The LEAF picosecond pulse radiolysis facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory journal November 2004
Tests of functionals for systems with fractional electron number journal April 2007
Ion-pairing dynamics of Li + and SCN in dimethylformamide solution: Chemical exchange two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy journal February 2011
Density‐functional thermochemistry. III. The role of exact exchange journal April 1993
Development of nanosecond time-resolved infrared detection at the LEAF pulse radiolysis facility journal April 2015
Reduction Potentials of One‐Electron Couples Involving Free Radicals in Aqueous Solution journal October 1989
Solute-solute interactions in liquid ammonia solutions: a vibrational spectroscopic view journal January 1981
Establishment of an Efficient Synthetic Route to 3,4:3’,4’-Bis(3,6,9-trioxaundecane-1,11-dioxy)benzil journal January 2006

Cited By (2)

Hydrogen‐Bonding‐Driven Ion‐Pair Formation in Protic Ionic Liquid Aqueous Solution journal October 2019
Physical origin underlying the prenucleation-cluster-mediated nonclassical nucleation pathways for calcium phosphate journal January 2019

Similar Records

Vibrational stark effects to identify ion pairing and determine reduction potentials in electrolyte-free environments
Journal Article · Fri Jan 02 04:00:00 UTC 2015 · Journal of the American Chemical Society · OSTI ID:1183827

Probing Intermolecular Electron Delocalization in Dimer Radical Anions by Vibrational Spectroscopy
Journal Article · Wed Jul 05 04:00:00 UTC 2017 · Journal of Physical Chemistry. B, Condensed Matter, Materials, Surfaces, Interfaces and Biophysical Chemistry · OSTI ID:1399684

Solvate Structures and Computational/Spectroscopic Characterization of LiPF6 Electrolytes
Journal Article · Thu Apr 23 04:00:00 UTC 2015 · Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 119(16):8492-85 · OSTI ID:1221467