Calorimetric Investigation of the Monolayers Formed At Solid-liquid Interface

Heat capacity measurements have been made to investigate the formation of two solid monolayers each of n-pentane, n-heptane and n-dodecane adsorbed on graphite, one at submonolayer coverages and the other coexisting with the liquid. At submonolayer coverages the monolayers are found to melt respectively at 99.8, 151.6, and 217.3 K, well below the bulk melting points. The monolayers coexisting with the liquid melted at 205.6 for heptane and at 287.8 K for dodecane, whereas no evidence was obtained for pentane on the formation of such solid monolayer above the bulk melting point. The order persisting in the liquid near the interface depends upon the length of the molecules. The dodecane monolayers showed another transitions below the melting points both at submonolayer and multilayer coverages.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Density functional theory of chemical reactivity indices in some ion—molecule reaction systems

Three isoelectronic reactions, proton transfer (PT ), hydrogen abstraction (HA ), and electron transfer (ET ), of NH⁺₃ with NH,₃ H₂O, and HF have been studied using ab initio molecular orbital calculations. For the reaction of NH⁺₃ + H₂O, the energy of the transition state (TS) is higher than that of the reactants. This is consistent with the experimental observation that the rate constant is less than the average dipole orientation (ADO) rate constant. It seems reasonable that the reaction rate for the reaction NH⁺₃ + H₂O would hardly depend on the v₂ mode of NH⁺₃ at least for low-lying excited states (E_int≤ 0.714 eV) of the v₂ mode, because the v₂ mode contributes mainly to the normal mode orthogonal to the reaction coordinate at the TS . This is consistent with experimental observation. A similar prediction can be made for the NH⁺₃ + HF reaction. The electron-transfer processes for the HA reactions have been examined in terms of the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC ). The order of reactivity with NH⁺₃ is NH₃ > H₂O > HF. It is found that the degree of the electron transfer and the reactivity are correlated with the absolute hardness (η) of NH₃, H₂O, and HF. This is in accord with the softness as the chemical reactivity index in the density functional theory. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Reductive Leaching of Chalcopyrite by Chromium(II) Chloride for the Rapid and Complete Extraction of Copper

A hydrometallurgical process is developed to lower the costs of copper production and thereby sustain the use of copper throughout the global transition to renewable energy technologies. The unique feature of the hydrometallurgical process is the reductive treatment of chalcopyrite, which is in contrast to the oxidative treatment more commonly pursued in the literature. Chalcopyrite reduction by chromium(II) ion is described for the first time and superior kinetics are shown. At high concentrate loadings of 39, 78, and 117 g L⁻¹, chalcopyrite reacted completely within minutes at room temperature and pressure. The XRD, SEM-EDS, and XPS measurements indicate that chalcopyrite reacts to form copper(I) chloride (CuCl). After the reductive treatment, the mineral products are leached by iron(III) sulfate to demonstrate the complete extraction of copper. The chromium(II) ion may be regenerated by an electrolysis unit inspired by an iron chromium flow battery in a practical industrial process.