Structures and energetics of complexation of metal ions with ammonia, water, and benzene: A computational study.

Abstract

Quantum chemical calculations have been performed at CCSD(T)/def2-TZVP level to investigate the strength and nature of interactions of ammonia (NH3 ), water (H2 O), and benzene (C6 H6 ) with various metal ions and validated with the available experimental results. For all the considered metal ions, a preference for C6 H6 is observed for dicationic ions whereas the monocationic ions prefer to bind with NH3 . Density Functional Theory-Symmetry Adapted Perturbation Theory (DFT-SAPT) analysis has been employed at PBE0AC/def2-TZVP level on these complexes (closed shell), to understand the various energy terms contributing to binding energy (BE). The DFT-SAPT result shows that for the metal ion complexes with H2 O electrostatic component is the major contributor to the BE whereas, for C6 H6 complexes polarization component is dominant, except in the case of alkali metal ion complexes. However, in case of NH3 complexes, electrostatic component is dominant for s-block metal ions, whereas, for the d and p-block metal ion complexes both electrostatic and polarization components are important. The geometry (M(+) -N and M(+) -O distance for NH3 and H2 O complexes respectively, and cation-π distance for C6 H6 complexes) for the alkali and alkaline earth metal ion complexes increases down the group. Natural population analysis performed on NH3 , H2 O, and C6 H6 complexes shows that the charge transfer to metal ions is higher in case of C6 H6 complexes.