Binding Energies of the Silver Ion to Alcohols and Amides: A Theoretical and Experimental Study

The silver ion binding energies to alcohols (methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, i-propanol, and n-butanol) and to amides (acetamide, N-methylacetamide, N,N-dimethylacetamide, formamide, N-methylformamide, and N,N-dimethylformamide) have been calculated using density functional theory (DFT) and measured using the threshold collision-induced dissociation (TCID) method. For DFT, the combined basis sets of ECP28MWB for silver and 6-311++G(2df,2pd) for the other atoms were found to be optimal using a series of test calculations on Ag+ binding to methanol and to formamide. In addition, the Ag+ binding energies of all ligands were evaluated with nine functionals after full geometric optimizations. TCID binding energies were measured using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Reasonable to good agreements were obtained between the calculated and experimental silver(I) binding energies. Ligation of Ag+ to the alcohols was primarily via the oxygen, although n-propanol and n-butanol exhibited additional, bidentate coordination via the CH hydrogens. By contrast, silver(I) binding to the amides was all monodentate via the carbonyl oxygen. There appears to be strong correlations between the binding energies and the polarizabilities of the ligands.