No abstract

Hydrated zinc(II) cations, due to their importance in biological systems, are the subject of ongoing research concerning their hydration shell structure and dynamics. Here, ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations are used to study solvent exchange events around aqueous Zn2+, for which observation in detail is possible owing to the considerable length of the generated trajectory. While the hexacoordinated Zn(H2O)62+ is the dominant form of Zn(II) in an aqueous solution, there is a non-negligible contribution of the pentacoordinated Zn(H2O)52+ complex which presence is linked to the dissociative solvent exchange events around Zn2+. The pentacoordinated Zn(II) has a much tighter hydration sphere and is characterized by a trigonal bipyramidal structure, in contrast to the usual octahedral symmetry of the hexacoordinated complex. In total, two full exchange events are registered in the analyzed trajectory. AIMD simulations on an adequate length scale thus provide a direct way of studying such solvent exchange events around ions in molecular detail.