Distinctive Trend of Metal Binding Affinity via Hydration Shell Breakage in Nanoconfined Cavity

We report a distinctive trend in the binding affinity of metal cations when they interact with lacunary Keggin-type polyoxometalate K 7 [α-PW 11 O 39 ] clusters in aqueous media. The binding affinity of metal cations follows the special trends of Li + > Na + > K + for monovalent cations and Mg 2+ > Ca 2+ > Sr 2+ > Ba 2+ for divalent cations, completely reversed from the common trends of Li + < Na + < K + and Mg 2+ < Ca 2+ < Sr 2+ < Ba 2+ for macroion–counterion ion-pair formation in dilution solution. Isothermal titration calorimetry and NMR measurements confirm that the hydration shells of metal cations are significantly broken during the interaction in the nanoscale cavity, making the binding affinity stronger for the cations with smaller ionic sizes instead of hydrated sizes. The same phenomenon is also observed for the lacunary Dawson-type clusters, which contain well-defined cavity in their structures as well, demonstrating the universality of this reverse trend and its connection to nanoconfinement effect in small submolecular cavities.