Magnesium and zinc dications possess the same charge and have an almost identical size. Yet, they behave very differently in aqueous solutions and play distinct biological
roles. It is thus crucial to identify the origins of such different behaviors and to assess to what extent they can be captured by force field molecular dynamics simulations.
In this work, we combine neutron scattering experiments in a specific mixture of H2O and D2O (the so-called null water) with ab initio molecular dynamics simulations in order
to probe the difference in the hydration structure and ion pairing properties of chloride solutions of the two cations. The obtained data are used as a benchmark to
develop a scaled charge force field for Mg2+ that includes electronic polarization in a mean field way. We show that using this electronic continuum correction we can
describe aqueous magnesium chloride solutions well. However, in aqueous zinc chloride specific interaction terms between the ions need to be introduced to capture ion pairing
quantitatively.