On the affinities of ammonia and water for Li, Na and K

The affinities of ammonia for Na⁺ and K⁺, recently determined experimentally, have been computed by the ab initio SCF method using ended polarized gaussian basis sets and shown to be satisfactory Furthermore, the corresponding values computed at the same level of accuracy for the three cations Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺ and the two ligands NH₃ and H₂O are shown to yield the order Li⁺ > Na⁺ > K⁺ for each ligand and NH₃ > H₂O for each ion, in agreement with experiment. An analysis of the factors involved in the binding provides a consistent rationalization of these regularities and of some observed correlations.