Enthalpy and entropy of nanoparticle association from temperature-dependent cryo-TEM

Quantum dots form equilibrium structures in liquid dispersions, due to thermodynamic forces that are often hard to quantify. Analysis of these structures, visualized using cryogenic electron microscopy, yields their formation free energy. Here we show that the nanoparticle interaction free energy can be further separated into the enthalpic and entropic contributions, using the temperature dependence of the assembled structures. Monodisperse oleic acid-capped PbSe nanoparticles dispersed in decalin were used as a model system, and the temperature-dependent equilibrium structures were imaged by cryo-TEM, after quenching from different initial temperatures. The interaction enthalpy and entropy follow from van 't Hoff's exact equation for the temperature dependence of thermodynamic equilibria, now applied to associating nanoparticles. The enthalpic component gives the magnitude of the contact interaction, which is crucial information in understanding the energetics of the self-assembly of nanoparticles into ordered structures.     

The mesoscopic dynamics of thermodynamic systems

Concepts of everyday use such as energy, heat, and temperature have acquired a precise meaning after the development of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics provides the basis for understanding how heat and work are related and the general rules that the macroscopic properties of systems at equilibrium follow. Outside equilibrium and away from macroscopic regimes, most of those rules cannot be applied directly. Here we present recent developments that extend the applicability of thermodynamic concepts deep into mesoscopic and irreversible regimes. We show how the probabilistic interpretation of thermodynamics together with probability conservation laws can be used to obtain Fokker-Planck equations for the relevant degrees of freedom. This approach provides a systematic method to obtain the stochastic dynamics of a system directly from its equilibrium properties. A wide variety of situations can be studied in this way, including many that were thought to be out of reach of thermodynamic theories, such as nonlinear transport in the presence of potential barriers, activated processes, slow relaxation phenomena, and basic processes in biomolecules, such as translocation and stretching.     

Prediction of excess thermodynamic functions and activity coefficients of some polymeric liquid mixtures using a new equation of state

In this work, the excess thermodynamic properties, namely excess molar Gibbs energy, excess molar enthalpy, excess molar entropy, excess molar internal energy, and excess molar Helmholtz energy for four polymer mixtures and blends at different temperatures, pressures, and compositions have been calculated using the GMA equation of state. We have also calculated the activity coefficient for these polymeric mixtures using the GMA equation of state. The values of statistical parameters between experimental and calculated properties show the ability of this equation of state in reproducing and predicting the excess thermodynamic functions and activity coefficients for studied polymeric mixtures.     

Application of a new equation of state to liquid refrigerant mixtures

A new general equation of state recently reported for pure liquids has been developed to predict the volumetric and thermodynamic properties of six binary and two ternary liquid refrigerant mixtures (including HCs and HFCs mixtures) at different temperatures, pressures, and compositions. The results show this equation of state can be used to reproduce and predict different thermodynamic properties of liquid refrigerant mixtures within experimental errors. The composition dependence of the parameters of this equation of state has been assumed as quadratic functions of mole fraction. Using these mixing rules, the agreement between calculated and experimental densities is better than 0.6% for binary mixtures and 2.3% for ternary mixtures. To compare the performance of this new equation of state against other well-known methods such as the COSTALD method, the density of some refrigerant mixtures, for which the parameters of COSTALD were available, has been computed and compared with those of this new equation of state.     

Interactive adsorption behavior of NAD+ at a gold electrode surface

The adsorption of an oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, NAD+, on a polycrystalline gold electrode surface and the subsequent surface conformation of the molecule were investigated over a wide temperature and potential range, using electrochemical differential capacitance and PM-IRRAS techniques. The adsorption process was described by the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The corresponding thermodynamic parameters were determined: the Gibbs energy, enthalpy, and entropy of adsorption. The large negative Gibbs energy of adsorption (-43 +/- 4 kJ mol-1 and -39 +/- 2 kJ mol-1 on a positively and negatively charged surface, respectively) confirms that the NAD+ adsorption process is highly spontaneous, while the large entropy gain (285 J K-1 mol-1 and 127 J K-1 mol-1 on a positively and negatively charged surface, respectively) was found to represent the adsorption driving force. It was demonstrated that the energetics of the adsorption process is surface-charge controlled, while its kinetics is both mass-transport and surface-charge controlled. A surface-charge dependent conformation model for the adsorbed NAD+ molecule is proposed. These findings suggest that the origin of the NAD+ reduction overpotential is related to the surface conformation of the adsorbed NAD+ molecule, rather than to the electrode Fermi level position.     

Prediction of thermodynamic properties of some polymeric systems using an extended LJ potential-based equation of state up to high temperature–high pressure conditions

In this work, the extended Lennard-Jones potential-based equation of state (ELJ-based EoS) on which the effective near-neighbour pair interactions are LJ (12,6,3) type has been used to predict the specific volume and other thermodynamic properties of some semi-crystalline and liquid polymers and copolymers up to extremely high temperature–high pressure conditions. It seems that, at least in the dense regions, there are no upper- and lower-specific volume limitations in the applicability of the model for different polymeric systems. The parameters can be determined at any temperature for each compound using the temperature dependence of the parameters of ELJ-based EoS. The calculated parameters have been used to calculate the specific volume and other derived thermodynamic properties of different polymeric systems at any temperature and pressure. The ELJ-based EoS has been also compared with some previous studies.     

Prediction of characteristics of wax precipitation in synthetic mixtures and fluids of petroleum: A new model

A thermodynamic structure has been developed for the calculation of the cloud point, quantity, and composition of wax precipitates over a wide range of temperatures. The model is based on a combination of the concepts of ideal solution and multiple solid phase formation, and uses cubic equations of state. The experimental systems used to show the predictive capacity of the model have varied characteristics: synthetic systems of continuous series of heavy alkanes, discontinuous series (“bimodal”), and petroleum fluids with non-defined fractions as C₂₀₊, C₃₀₊, etc. The present treatment insures thermodynamic consistency and is simple to compute, minimizes adjustable parameters, and overcomes some limitations of previous models. The calculated results show smaller deviations from experimental data than other models.     

Separation of flavins and nicotinamide cofactors in Chinese hamster ovary cells by capillary electrophoresis

Simultaneous extraction, separation and quantitation of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and flavin mononucleotide (FMN) in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells were investigated. The separation of flavins and nicotinamide cofactors was performed by capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection at the excitation wavelength of 325 nm. The separation protocol was established by investigating the excitation wavelength, high voltage and effects of buffer nature, pH and concentration. All endogenous fluorophores riboflavin, FAD, FMN, NADH and NADPH show wide linear range of quantitation. The limits of detection for the five compounds ranged from 4.5 to 23 nM. Extraction conditions were optimized for high-efficiency recovery of all endogenous fluorophores from CHO cells. To account for the complex matrix of cell extracts, a standard addition method was used to quantify FAD, FMN, NADH and NADPH in CHO cells. The quantitative results should be useful to reveal the metabolic status of cells. The protocols for extraction, separation and quantitation are readily adaptable to normal and cancer cell lines for the analysis of endogenous fluorophores.     

A Helmholtz energy equation of state for calculating the thermodynamic properties of fluid mixtures

A new approach has been developed for calculating the properties of mixtures based on an equation of state explicit in reduced Helmholtz energy. This approach allows for the representation of the thermodynamic properties over a wide range of fluid states and is based on highly accurate equations of state for the pure components combined at the reduced temperature and density of the mixture. The reducing parameters used for temperature and density depend on composition. For simple mixtures (those that closely follow Raoult's law), a very accurate representation of all thermodynamic properties has been achieved with relatively simple functions. For nonideal mixtures, the reducing functions for density and temperature were modified, and a departure function was added to the equation of state. Generally, the model is able to represent liquid and vapor states with uncertainties of 0.1% in density, 1% in heat capacities and 1% in bubble point pressures if experimental data of comparable uncertainties exist. Two applications of the mixture model concepts were developed independently by the authors in the United States and Germany over the same time period. These applications include the development of individual equations for each binary system and a generalization of the model which is valid for a wide variety of mixtures. The individual approaches are presented with an explanation of the similarities and differences. Although the paper focuses mainly on binary systems, some results for ternary mixtures are also presented.     

Recent Progress on Graphene‐based Electrochemical Biosensors

The detailed records and conclusions on the important advancements in graphene‐based electrochemical biosensors have been reviewed. Due to their outstanding properties, graphene‐based materials have been widely studied for the accurate electrochemical detection of many biomolecules, which is extremely vital to the development of biomedical instruments, clinical diagnosis, and disease treatment. This review discusses the graphene research for the effective immobilization of enzymes, including glucose oxidase, horseradish peroxidase, and hemoglobin, etc., and the accurate detection of biomolecules, including glucose, hydrogen peroxide, dopamine, ascorbic acid, uric acid, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, DNA, RNA, and carcinoembryonic antigen, etc. In most of the cases, the graphene‐based biosensors exhibited remarkable performance with high sensitivities, wide linear detection ranges, low detection limits, and long‐term stabilities.     

尺寸效应对氧化锌微/纳体系热力学性质的影响

采用微乳液水热辅助法合成了三种不同尺寸的手榴弹状ZnO 微/纳结构. 通过设计热化学循环, 建立了纳米ZnO与块体ZnO体系热力学性质之间的关系. 并结合微量热技术对不同尺寸ZnO微/纳体系的热力学性质进行了计算. 结果表明, 尺寸效应对微/纳体系热力学性质有显著的影响: 随着反应物尺度的减小, 体系的标准摩尔反应焓、标准摩尔反应Gibbs 自由能、标准摩尔反应熵均降低, 而材料自身的标准摩尔生成焓、标准摩尔生成Gibbs 自由能、标准摩尔熵均增加.     

Relation of the free energy interaction parameters to some structural properties of ion-exchange resins

In our previous publication equations were derived for the calculation of the free energy interaction parameters from ion-exchange equilibrium measurements. These parameters were calculated for several selected cation- and anion-exchange systems. For the demonstration of the structural significance of these parameters our own anion-exchange equilibrium data were processed together with similar data available for other systems in the literature. It has been proved that the calculated free energy interaction parameters are related to the crosslinking of the polymer matrix, to the size of the active group of the resin and to the size of the exchanging counter ion. Since these structural features of the resisns are all important selectivity controlling properties the free energy interaction parameters can be used advantageously for the operational characterisation or comparison of the ion exchangers or other reactive polymers.     

Thermochemical aspects of proton transfer in the gas phase

The beginning of the twentieth century saw the development of new theories of acidity and basicity, which are currently well accepted. The thermochemistry of proton transfer in the absence of solvent attracted much interest during this period, because of the fundamental importance of the process. Nevertheless, before the 1950s, few data were available, either from lattice energy evaluations or from calculations using the emerging molecular orbital theory. Advances in mass spectrometry during the last 40 years allowed studies of numerous systems with better accuracy. Thousands of accurate gas-phase acidities or basicities are now available, for simple atomic and molecular systems and for large biomolecules. The intrinsic effect of structure on the Br?nsted basic or acidic properties of molecules and the influence of solvents have been unravelled. In this tutorial, the basics of the thermodynamic principles involved are given, and the mass spectrometric techniques are briefly reviewed. Advances in the design and measurements of gas-phase superacids and superbases are described. Recent studies concerning biomolecules are also evoked.     

Calorimetric studies of the interactions between micelle-forming and bilayer-forming amphiphiles

We develop a theoretical basis for detailed investigations of mixed aqueous solutions of amphiphiles by high resolution titration calorimetry (ITC). We review the phenomenology of phase behavior of these systems and formulate the questions addressed in thermodynamic studies. Based on the equations obtained, we introduce a general scheme of calorimetric measurements allowing to characterize comprehensively the energetics of the mixtures. We discuss the results of previous studies in relation to this scheme.     

Structures, energetics, and spectra of hydrated hydroxide anion clusters

The structures, energetics, electronic properties, and spectra of hydrated hydroxide anions are studied using density functional and high level ab initio calculations. The overall structures and binding energies are similar to the hydrated anion clusters, in particular, to the hydrated fluoride anion clusters except for the tetrahydrated clusters and hexahydrated clusters. In tetrahydrated system, tricoordinated structures and tetracoordinated structures are compatible, while in pentahydrated systems and hexahydrated systems, tetracoordinated structures are stable. The hexahydrated system is similar in structure to the hydrated chloride cluster. The thermodynamic quantities (enthalpies and free energies) of the clusters are in good agreement with the experimental values. The electronic properties induced by hydration are similar to hydrated chloride anions. The charge-transfer-to-solvent energies of these hydrated-hydroxide anions are discussed, and the predicted ir spectra are used to explain the experimental data in terms of the cluster structures. The low-energy barriers between the conformations along potential energy surfaces are reported.     

Thermodynamics and diffusion in size-symmetric and asymmetric dense electrolytes

MD simulation results for model size-symmetric and asymmetric electrolytes at high densities and temperatures (well outside the liquid-gas coexistence region) are generated and analyzed focusing on thermodynamic and diffusion properties. An extension of the mean spherical approximation for electrolytes originally derived for charged hard sphere fluids is adapted to these systems by exploiting the separation of short range and Coulomb interaction contributions intrinsic to these theoretical models and is found to perform well for predicting equation of state quantities. The diffusion coefficients of these electrolytes can also be reasonably well predicted using entropy scaling ideas suitably adapted to charged systems and mixtures. Thus, this approach may provide an avenue for studying dense electrolytes or complex molecular systems containing charged species at high pressures and temperatures.     

Calorimetric study and thermal analysis of Al–Sn system

The results of calorimetric study and thermal analysis of binary Al–Sn system are presented in this paper. The Oelsen calorimetry was used in thermodynamic analysis. Following thermodynamic properties were determined at 727 °C: activities, activity coefficients, partial/integral molar Gibbs excess, and mixing energies. The energetics of mixing in liquid Al–Sn alloys has been analyzed through the study of concentration fluctuation in the long-wavelength limit. Thermal analysis of selected alloys in Al–Sn system was done using differential thermal analysis. Defined characteristic phase transition temperatures were used for comparison with calculated phase diagram of investigated system. Good agreement with available literature data was obtained. Structural analysis of selected alloys was done using optic microscopy.     

Modeling of Thermodynamic Properties and Fusion Diagrams of Ternary Oxosulfide Systems

Three different approximations are used to determine the thermodynamic properties of components and fusion diagrams of ternary oxosulfide systems FeS-FeO-Cu₂S and FeS-FeO-Ni₃S₂. The coordinates of eutectic points and eutectic temperatures are obtained, and equations for calculating the thermodynamic activities of the components are derived for the system FeS-FeO-Cu₂S.     

Theoretical investigation on the structural and thermodynamic properties of FeSe at high pressure and high temperature

A theoretical investigation on structural and thermodynamic properties of 11-type iron-based superconductor FeSe at high pressure and high temperature was performed by employing the first-principles method based on the density functional theory. Some structural parameters of FeSe in both tetragonal and hexagonal phases are reported. According to the fourth-order Birch-Murnaghan equation of states, the transition pressure P(t) of FeSe from the PbO-type phase to the NiAs-type phase was determined. The calculated results are found to be in good agreement with the available experimental data. Based on the quasi-harmonic Debye model, the pressure and temperature dependence of the thermodynamic properties for hexagonal phase FeSe were investigated. Our theoretical calculations suggest that the pressure and temperature have significant effects on the heat capacity, vibrational internal energy, vibrational entropy, vibrational Helmholtz free energy, thermal expansion coefficient and Debye temperature. Even though few theoretical reports on the structural properties of FeSe are found in the current literature, to our knowledge, this is a novel theoretical investigation on the structural and thermodynamic properties of FeSe at high temperature. We hope that the theoretical results reported here can give more insight into the structural and thermodynamic properties of other iron-based superconductors at high temperature.