Alkali metal cation-hexacyclen complexes: effects of alkali metal cation size on the structure and binding energy

Threshold collision-induced dissociation (CID) of alkali metal cation-hexacyclen (ha18C6) complexes, M(+)(ha18C6), with xenon is studied using guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry techniques. The alkali metal cations examined here include: Na(+), K(+), Rb(+), and Cs(+). In all cases, M(+) is the only product observed, corresponding to endothermic loss of the intact ha18C6 ligand. The cross-section thresholds are analyzed to extract zero and 298 K M(+)-ha18C6 bond dissociation energies (BDEs) after properly accounting for the effects of multiple M(+)(ha18C6)-Xe collisions, the kinetic and internal energy distributions of the M(+)(ha18C6) and Xe reactants, and the lifetimes for dissociation of the activated M(+)(ha18C6) complexes. Ab initio and density functional theory calculations are used to determine the structures of ha18C6 and the M(+)(ha18C6) complexes, provide molecular constants necessary for the thermodynamic analysis of the energy-resolved CID data, and theoretical estimates for the M(+)-ha18C6 BDEs. Calculations using a polarizable continuum model are also performed to examine solvent effects on the binding. In the absence of solvent, the M(+)-ha18C6 BDEs decrease as the size of the alkali metal cation increases, consistent with the noncovalent nature of the binding in these complexes. However, in the presence of solvent, the ha18C6 ligand exhibits selectivity for K(+) over the other alkali metal cations. The M(+)(ha18C6) structures and BDEs are compared to those previously reported for the analogous M(+)(18-crown-6) and M(+)(cyclen) complexes to examine the effects of the nature of the donor atom (N versus O) and the number donor atoms (six vs four) on the nature and strength of binding.