In Figure , we report the values of ∆E Zn Int , which indicate that the stabilization introduced by acetates is higher than the stabilization introduced by imidazole ligands. This is expected because acetates are negatively charged while imidazoles are neutral. Nevertheless, the energy penalty of a ligand to be incorporated in the first coordination shell of Zn(II) (captured by the ∆E CS f term), is also higher for acetates than for imidazoles. These two effects partially compensate each other, and the contribution of each acetate/imidazole ligand, ∆E T int , is much more similar, as shown in Figures and. For octahedral complexes, there is still a larger ∆E T int interaction detected for acetates with an average of 42.9 kcal/mol versus 31.2 kcal/mol for imidazoles. However, in the case of tetrahedral structures, imidazole and ac-etate ligands become interchangeable, with similar ∆E T int of 46.6 and 43.1 kcal/mol on average for acetates and imidazoles, respectively.