Ion mixing, hydration, and transport in aqueous ionic systems.

The enhancement effect on the ion mobility of fluoride (and that of chloride) in a polycationic system, as the chloride content increases, is shown to also exist in other more simple ionic systems with cations such as the cesium ion and an organic ammonium ion. As the chloride content increases, in addition to the finding that there is more unbound water associated with the cation, we also observe that the average lifetime of a hydrogen bond decreases. This change to the hydrogen bonds is correlated to significant changes to both the structural and dynamical properties of water. The more disordered water structure and faster water dynamics are hypothesized to be also responsible for the enhanced ion mobilities. Furthermore, when either the chloride content or hydration level is changed, the self-diffusion constant of each co-ion changes by almost the same factor, implying the existence of a single universal transport mechanism that determines ion mobilities.