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Title: Revisiting the hydration structure of aqueous Na+

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4975608· OSTI ID:1389653

In this paper, a combination of theory, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) are used to probe the hydration structure of aqueous Na+. The high spatial resolution of the XRD measurements corresponds to Qmax = 24 Å–1 while the first-reported Na K-edge EXAFS measurements have a spatial resolution corresponding to 2k = Qmax = 16 Å–1. Both provide an accurate measure of the shape and position of the first peak in the Na–O pair distribution function, gNaO(r). The measured Na–O distances of 2.384 ± 0.003 Å (XRD) and 2.37 ± 0.024 Å (EXAFS) are in excellent agreement. These measurements show a much shorter Na–O distance than generally reported in the experimental literature (Na–Oavg ~ 2.44 Å) although the current measurements are in agreement with recent neutron diffraction measurements. The measured Na–O coordination number from XRD is 5.5 ± 0.3. The measured structure is compared with both classical and first-principles density functional theory (DFT) simulations. Both of the DFT-based methods, revPBE and BLYP, predict a Na–O distance that is too long by about 0.05 Å with respect to the experimental data (EXAFS and XRD). The inclusion of dispersion interactions (–D3 and –D2) significantly worsens the agreement with experiment by further increasing the Na–O distance by 0.07 Å. In contrast, the use of a classical Na–O Lennard-Jones potential with SPC/E water accurately predicts the Na–O distance as 2.39 Å although the Na–O peak is over-structured with respect to experiment.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; AC05-76RL1830; FG02-09ER46650
OSTI ID:
1389653
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1349340
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 146, Issue 8; ISSN 0021-9606
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 88 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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