Reconsideration on Hydration of Sodium Ion: From Micro-Hydration to Bulk Hydration

Micro hydration structures of the sodium ion, [Na(H₂O)_n]+, n = 1–12, were probed by density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ level in both gaseous and aqueous phase. The predicted equilibrium sodium–oxygen distance of 0.240 nm at the present level of theory. The four-, five- and six-coordinated cluster can transform from each other at the ambient condition. The analysis of the successive water binding energy and natural charge population (NBO) on Na⁺ clearly shows that the influence of Na⁺ on the surrounding water molecules goes beyond the first hydration shell with the hydration number of 6. The Car-Parrinello molecular dynamic simulation shows that only the first hydration sphere can be found, and the hydration number of Na⁺ is 5.2 and the hydration distance (r_Na–O) is 0.235 nm. All our simulations mentioned in the present paper show an excellent agreement with the diffraction result from X-ray scattering study.