(1) , respectively.The structural properties of interactions between amino acid molecules and metal ions have received a lot of attention because of their importance in extensive fields of chemical and biological sciences. A large number of crystallographic data have been accumulated for various chelate complexes of amino acids with transition-metal ions, in which the amino acid molecule coordinates as a bidentate ligand binding through both amino-nitrogen and carboxyl-oxygen atoms.1 The complex formation of the glycinate ion with Ni 2þ , Cu 2þ , and Zn 2þ in aqueous solution has been investigated by X-ray diffraction 2-4 and EXAFS 5 methods. It has been reported that the coordination of these metal complexes is also accomplished as a bidentate chelate through the N and O atoms of the glycinate ion. An X-ray diffraction study on Zn(II) complexes with the -alaninate ion in aqueous solution has revealed that the alaninate ion exhibits bidentate coordination. 6 A relatively small number of structural investigations have reported on the interaction between alkali metal ions and amino acid molecules. According to a theoretical study on the gas-phase complexes of the glycine molecule with Li þ and Na þ , the lowest energy species corresponds to a five-membered ring in which Li þ and Na þ are coordinated to both N and O atoms of the glycine molecule. 7 On the other hand, recent single crystal X-ray diffraction results of sodium nitrate-glycine (1/1) have shown that the zwitterionic glycine molecule coordinates as a monodentate ligand to the sodium ion through a carboxyl-oxygen atom of the glycine molecule. 8 The coordination structure of amino acid with the alkali metal ion in aqueous solution has not yet been reported.In the present paper, we describe the results of TOF neutron diffraction measurements on aqueous 18 mol % lithium alaninate heavy water solutions.14 N/ 15 N, 6 Li/ 7 Li, H M /D M , and H M 0 /D M 0 isotopically substituted samples were employed in order to obtain information on the environmental structure around the substituted atom. Structural parameters concerning the first hydration shell of Li þ and those of the amino-nitrogen, the methyl-hydrogen, and the methine-hydrogen atoms of the alaninate ion were determined from the least squares fitting analyses of observed first-order difference functions, Á N ðQÞ, Á Li ðQÞ, Á HM ðQÞ, and Á H M 0 ðQÞ.