Tracing the acid-base catalytic properties of MON2O mixed oxides (M = Be, Mg, Ca; N = Li, Na, K) by theoretical calculations.

The stability and acid-base properties of MON2O mixed oxides (where M = Be, Mg, Ca; N = Li, Na, K) are studied by using ab initio methods. It is demonstrated that (i) the basicity of such designed systems evaluated by estimation of electronic proton affinity and gas-phase basicity (defined as the electronic and Gibbs free energies of deprotonation processes for [MON2O]H+) were found significant (in the ranges of 272-333 and 260-322 kcal/mol, respectively); (ii) in each series of MOLi2O/MONa2O/MOK2O, the basicity increases with an increase of the atomic number of alkali metal involved; (ii) the Lewis acidity of the corresponding [MON2O]H+ determined with respect to hydride anion (assessed as the electronic and Gibbs free energies of H- detachment processes for [MON2O]H2) decreases as the basicity of the corresponding oxide increases. The thermodynamic stability of all [MON2O]H2 systems is confirmed by estimating the Gibbs free energies for the fragmentation processes yielding either H2 or H2O.