Li⁺-ligand binding energies and the effect of ligand fluorination on the binding energies

The Li⁺-ligand binding energies are computed for seven ligands and their perfluoro analogs using Density Functional Theory. The bonding is mostly electrostatic in origin. Thus the size of the binding energy tends to correlate with the ligand dipole moment, however, the charge-induced dipole contribution can be sufficiently large to affect the dipolebinding energy correlation. The perfluoro species are significantly less strongly bound than their parents, because the electron withdrawing power of the fluorine reduces the ligand dipole moment.