Hydration and ion pair formation in aqueous Y(3+)-salt solutions.

Raman spectra of aqueous yttrium perchlorate, triflate (trifluoromethanesulfonate), chloride and nitrate solutions were measured over a broad concentration range (0.198-3.252 mol L(-1)). The spectra range from low wavenumbers to 4200 cm(-1). A very weak mode at 384 cm(-1) with a full width at half height at 50 cm(-1) in the isotropic spectrum suggests that the Y(3+)- octa-aqua ion is thermodynamically stable in dilute perchlorate solutions (∼0.5 mol L(-1)) while in concentrated perchlorate solutions outer-sphere ion pairs and contact ion pairs are formed. The octa-hydrate, Y(OH2)8 was also detected in a 1.10 mol L(-1) aqueous Y(CF3SO3)3 solution. Furthermore, very weak and broad depolarized modes could be detected which are assigned to Y(OH2)8(aq) at 100, 166, 234 and 320 cm(-1) confirming that a hexa-hydrate is not compatible with the hydrated species in solution. In yttrium chloride solutions contact ion pair formation was detected over the measured concentration range from 0.479-3.212 mol L(-1). The contact ion pairs in YCl3(aq) are fairly weak and disappear with dilution. At a concentration <0.2 mol L(-1) almost all complexes have disappeared. In YCl3 solutions, with additional HCl, chloro-complexes of the type Y(OH2)8-nCln (n = 1,2) are formed. The Y(NO3)3(aq) spectra were compared with a spectrum of a dilute NaNO3 solution and it was concluded that in Y(NO3)3(aq) over the concentration range from 2.035-0.198 mol L(-1) nitrato-complexes Y(OH2)8-n(NO3)ln (n = 1,2) are formed. The nitrato-complexes are weak and disappear with dilution <0.1 mol L(-1). DFT geometry optimizations and frequency calculations are reported for both the yttrium-water cluster in the gas phase and the cluster within a polarizable continuum model in order to implicitly describe the presence of the bulk solvent. The bond distance and angle for the square antiprismatic cluster geometry of Y(OH2)8 with the polarizable dielectric continuum is in good agreement with data from recent structural experimental measurements. The DFT frequency of the Y-O stretching mode of the Y(OH2)8 cluster, in a polarizable continuum, is at 372 cm(-1) in satisfactory agreement with the experimental value.