TY - JOUR AB - The nature of anionic alkali metals in solution is traditionally thought to be “gaslike” and unperturbed. In contrast to this noninteracting picture, we present experimental and computational data herein that support ion pairing in alkalide solutions. Concentration dependent ionic conductivity, dielectric spectroscopy, and neutron scattering results are consistent with the presence of superalkali–alkalide ion pairs in solution, whose stability and properties have been further investigated by DFT calculations. Our temperature dependent alkali metal NMR measurements reveal that the dynamics of the alkalide species is both reversible and thermally activated suggesting a complicated exchange process for the ion paired species. The results of this study go beyond a picture of alkalides being a “gaslike” anion in solution and highlight the significance of the interaction of the alkalide with its complex countercation (superalkali). AU - Riedel,R AU - Seel,AG AU - Malko,D AU - Miller,DP AU - Sperling,BT AU - Choi,H AU - Headen,TF AU - Zurek,E AU - Porch,A AU - Kucernak,A AU - Pyper,NC AU - Edwards,PP AU - Barrett,AGM DO - 10.1021/jacs.1c00115 EP - 3943 PY - 2021/// SN - 0002-7863 SP - 3934 TI - Superalkali-alkalide interactions and ion pairing in low-polarity solvents T2 - Journal of the American Chemical Society UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c00115 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/87967 VL - 143 ER -