Characteristic features of the structure of Ca 2+ hydration shells were considered. The results of quantum chemical calculations were compared with experimental data obtained from the study of nuclear magnetic relaxation of deuterons in aqueous solutions of calcium salts. The influence of the basis set and computational procedure on the calculated 2 D quadrupole cou pling constants (QCC) in isolated water molecule was investigated. The 2 D QCC in molecular clusters (D 2 O) 5 and Ca 2+ (D 2 O) n (n =6, 8, 10, 18) were calculated using the B3LYP/6 31++G** density functional method.Key words: ab initio quantum chemical calculations, quantum chemical calculations, densi ty functional theory, B3LYP functional, molecular clusters, 2 D quadrupole coupling constants, NMR relaxation.Aqueous solutions of salts have been studied for long; however, their microstructure is not known with certainty. Nuclear magnetic relaxation measurements provide infor mation on the features of ion microstructure and ion hy dration in such molecular systems. 1 Among NMR relax ation processes, an important place is occupied by qua drupole coupling of nuclei with the spin I > 1/2. Its inten sity depends on the product of the nuclear electric quadru pole moment by the electric field gradient (EFG) at the nuclear site 1,2 called the quadrupole coupling constant (QCC). An independent determination of QCC permits more correct interpretation of experimental NMR relax ation data. Using quantum chemical methods, one can calculate the EFG tensors at the nuclear sites and, hence, the QCC of nuclei in various molecular complexes. How ever, the results of calculations depend on the computa tional method, on the basis set used to solve the electronic Schrödinger equation, and on the structure of the molecu lar clusters used to simulate the ion hydration shells. 3,4 Therefore, in the preliminary step one should thoroughly assess the influence of the above factors on the final out come by comparing the results of calculations with reli able experimental data.In this work, the local environment of an ion in aque ous electrolyte solutions is simulated by clusters contain ing different numbers of water molecules. The aim of this work is to elucidate the applicability of the cluster ap proach for the description of the structure of ion hydration shells and to calculate the 2 D QCC in these clusters using the density functional theory.
Nuclear magnetic relaxation in aqueous electrolyte solutionsNMR relaxation is the process by which the equilibri um distribution of nuclei between the Zeeman energy states in an external magnetic field is established as a result of interaction between atomic nuclei with the environment. The type of interaction resulting in the equilibrium distri bution is called the relaxation channel (or mechanism). If there are several independent relaxation channels, the over all spin lattice relaxation rate can be expressed by the relation 1,2
,(where T 1 k is the relaxation time for the kth channel. Most often, the condition for fast exchange ...