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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Molten-Salt Synthesis of Complex Metal Oxide Nanoparticles
Published on: October 27, 2018
Record Low Ionization Potentials of Alkali Metal Complexes with Crown Ethers and Cryptands
Nikolay V Tkachenko1, Zhong-Ming Sun2, Alexander I Boldyrev1
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Utah State University Logan, Utah, 84322, United States.
Abstract:
Electronic properties of series of alkali metals complexes with crown ethers and cryptands were studied via DFT hybrid functionals. For [M([2.2.2]crypt)] (M=Li, Na, K) extremely low (1.70-1.52 eV) adiabatic ionization potentials were found. Such low values of ionization energies are significantly lower than those of alkali metal atoms. Thus, the investigated complexes can be defined as superalkalis. As a result, our investigation opens up new directions in the designing of chemical species with record low ionization potentials and extends the explanation of the ability of the cryptates and alkali crown ether complexes to stabilize multiple charged Zintl ions.
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Alkali Metals
Table 1: Properties of the alkali metals
Crown Ethers
Ionization Energy
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