Linking electronic and molecular structure: insight into aqueous chloride solvation

Aqueous chloride solutions are ubiquitous and diverse; systems include sea water, atmospheric droplets, geological processes and biological organisms. However, despite considerable effort, a complete microscopic model of the hydration shell, and local electronic structure of the aqueous chloride ion and its dynamics has not been established. In this work we employ ab initio molecular dynamics to study an aqueous chloride solution. In particular, local solvation events and the electronic structure around the chloride ion are interrogated. We employ the Effective Molecular Orbital (EMO) method which partitions the electronic structure into solute and solvent components while maintaining a rigorous quantum mechanical description of both. Movement of the chloride highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy within the valence band of water is revealed. The chloride ion has little impact on the average water electronic structure, however, locally the electronic effect of the chloride ion is significant. With the Hofmeister series in mind we find that the electronic effect of the chloride ion extends beyond the first solvation shell, but not beyond the edge of the second solvation shell. The chloride ion sits near the centre of the Hofmeister series because of an essential degeneracy between water–water and water–Cl H-bonding and because of a strong similarity in the water and chloride electronic structure. The chloride ion prefers to be symmetrically solvated by six H-bonding water molecules, however, the chloride HOMO energy and the coordination number oscillate in response to local fluctuations driven by the dynamics of the bulk water. A combined structural and electronic analysis has led to a distinction between two types of water molecule within the first solvation shell, those that H-bond to the chloride ion, and those that remain local (i.e. within the first solvation shell) but which H-bond to other water molecules. There are indications that these exhibit different dynamics with respect to residence times and rotational vs. translational motion.