The strong interactions between the anions and water are insufficiently modeled by implicit solvation continuum models. Explicitly solvated structures obtained with AIMD and optimized with DFT are used instead to overcome the limitations of the implicit solvation model where the anionic species are specifically stabilized via hydrogen bonds in the aqueous medium. The anions are stabilized by the protons acting as a Brønsted acid. These solvated structures yield an oxidation potential of 0.8 V vs Ag/AgCl, which is in better agreement with the experimental potential of 1.2