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Title: Coordination Sphere of Lanthanide Aqua Ions Resolved with Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

Journal Article · · Inorganic Chemistry
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
  4. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)

To resolve the fleeting structures of lanthanide Ln3+ aqua ions in solution, we (i) performed the first ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations of the entire series of Ln3+ aqua ions in explicit water solvent using pseudopotentials and basis sets recently optimized for lanthanides and (ii) measured the symmetry of the hydrating waters about Ln3+ ions (Nd3+, Dy3+, Er3+, Lu3+) for the first time with extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). EXAFS spectra were measured experimentally and generated from AIMD trajectories to directly compare simulation, which concurrently considers the electronic structure and the atomic dynamics in solution, with experiment. In this study, we performed a comprehensive evaluation of EXAFS multiple-scattering analysis (up to 6.5 Å) to measure Ln–O distances and angular correlations (i.e., symmetry) and elucidate the molecular geometry of the first hydration shell. This evaluation, in combination with symmetry-dependent L3- and L1-edge spectral analysis, shows that the AIMD simulations remarkably reproduces the experimental EXAFS data. The error in the predicted Ln–O distances is less than 0.07 Å for the later lanthanides, while we observed excellent agreement with predicted distances within experimental uncertainty for the early lanthanides. Our analysis revealed a dynamic, symmetrically disordered first coordination shell, which does not conform to a single molecular geometry for most lanthanides. This work sheds critical light on the highly elusive coordination geometry of the Ln3+ aqua ions.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1769883
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1777364
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-155623
Journal Information:
Inorganic Chemistry, Vol. 60, Issue 5; ISSN 0020-1669
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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