Electronic properties of polyoxometalates:: Electron and proton affinity of mixed-addenda Keggin and Wells-Dawson anions

A series of systematic DFT calculations were conducted on Keggin [SiW9M3O40](n-), M = Mo, V, and Nb; and Wells-Dawson anions [P2M18O62],(6-) M = W and Mo; [P2M15M3'O-62](m-), M = W and Mo, M' = W, Mo, and V to analyze the redox properties and the basicity of the external oxygen sites in polyoxometalates with nonequivalent addenda metals. The energy and composition of the lowest unoccupied orbitals, formally delocalized over the addenda atoms, determine the redox properties of a polyoxometalate. When a Mo6+ substitutes one W6+ in the 1:12 tungstate, the energy of the LUMO decreases and the cluster is more easily reduced. The tungstoniobates behave differently because the niobium orbitals insert into the tungsten band and the reduction of [SiW9Nb3O40](7-) yields the blue species SiW9Nb3 le and not the cluster SiW9Nb2NbIV. In Wells-bawson structures, the polar and equatorial sites have different electron affinities and the reduction preferentially occurs in the equatorial sites. Inserting ions with larger electron affinities into the polar sites can modify this traditional conduct. Hence, the trisubstituted [P2W15V3O62](9-) anion is reduced in the vanadium polar sites. By means of molecular electrostatic potential maps and the relative energy of the various protonated forms of [SiW9V3O40](7-) and [SiW9Mo3O40](4-), we established the basicity scale: OV2 > OMo2 > OW2 > OV > OW > OMo. Finally, a continuum model for the solvent enabled us to compare anions with different total charges.