A team of researchers has made a major breakthrough in understanding the ionization mechanisms of hot spots in solvated metal ions. The findings, published in the journal Nature Chemistry, could lead to advancements in many areas, from drug design to catalysis and material science.

The research team discovered that the ionization of solvated metal ions is a two-step process. In the first step, the metal ion is solvated, meaning it is surrounded by a shell of water molecules. In the second step, the solvated metal ion can be ionized by a hot spot, which is a region of high electron density. This process is faster than the traditional one-step process of ionization, which requires the metal ion to be directly exposed to a high energy source.

This new understanding of ionization of solvated metal ions could be used to develop more efficient and cost-effective methods for drug design, catalysis and material science. In particular, the researchers believe that their findings could be used to develop new catalysts for synthetic chemistry, which could lead to more efficient and sustainable processes.

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source: Phys.org