Coordination and ligand exchange dynamics of solvated metal ions

Recent developments in computer speed and capacity have opened the access to highly accurate molecular dynamics simulations based on quantum mechanically calculated forces for the chemically relevant region around ions in solution (QM/MM formalism). This accuracy, although still extremely consuming (30-300 days of CP time per simulation), is needed for reliable structural details and ligand exchange rates. A large number of main group and transition metal ions have been investigated by this approach, giving very detailed insight into the properties of these ions in solution and allowing to classify the ions by various characteristics. Most first-row transition metal ions have a very stable first hexa-coordinated solvation shell, whose vibrational distortions, however, strongly influence the dynamics of the second shell. The dynamical Jahn-Teller effect - shown to be a femto- and picosecond phenomenon - can strongly influence ligand coordination and exchange dynamics. A large number of ions with very labile solvation shell such as most main group ions, but also transition metal ions, e.g. Ag(I) and Hg(II), can change their coordination within the picosecond scale, leading to an almost simultaneous presence of several species hardly accessible by present experimental techniques. Among these ions, the structure breakers are of particular interest, and it could be shown that there are two types of them, one with a large and very labile first coordination shell such as Cs(I), the other characterised by a small first but an unusually large second solvation shell such as Au(I). Investigations of metal ions coordinated to ammonia ligands have shown that coordination to hetero-atoms can accelerate the ligand exchange reaction rates by several orders of magnitude, e.g. for Cu(II) and Ni(II). Simulations of ions in aqueous ammonia gave a very detailed picture of the complexity of species almost simultaneously present and illustrate the enormous difficulties encountered when trying to fit X-ray or neutron diffraction data for such systems. In general, ligand exchange rates situated in the picosecond range are far below the NMR scale, and as femtosecond laser pulse spectroscopy could not be applied so far to ionic solutions, accurate simulations have become a very important tool to access structure and dynamics of solvated ions. A number of VIDEO clips supplied on the Web as supporting material illustrates the processes occurring in solutions of the metal ions.