Solar energy and solid state chemistry

The transition from reliance on fossil fuels to long-term energy sources is a most urgent technical challenge to modern civilization. This paper outlines some materials problems associated with the transition to solar energy as a distributed source of (a) low-temperature heat for hot water, domestic heating, and refrigeration/air-conditioning, (b) electric power, and (c) fuel. Academy lecture delivered at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, on 6 December 1978.     

Thermal reactions of selected solids including reactants that melt during chemical change

Selected kinetic and mechanistic studies of thermal reactions of initially solid substances are reviewed with emphasis on the evidence that some of these chemical changes proceed with the essential participation of melting. The reactions considered are classified on the extent and the role of such melting and the various types of behaviour observed are discussed with reference to solid state rate processes in crystals. It is stressed that melting is an important feature in theoretical considerations of crystal reactivity because chemical changes often proceed more rapidly in a melt than in the solid state. However, literature reports concerned with reactions of solids do not always explicitly mention the possibility of melting during discussions of reactions mechanisms. The present paper comments on methods capable of detecting liquefaction during reaction, a feature of behaviour that is not always easily identified experimentally. Also considered here is the recognition of reaction intermediates, which provide important evidence concerning the course of the chemical changes through which the reactant is transformed into product. This short review draws attention to the considerable value of chemical evidence in elucidating mechanisms of reactions of solids including the necessity for identifying intermediates and the role of any melt or liquid participating.     

Development of master curves for discriminating the mechanism of solid state reactions from experimental data obtained by using the cyclic and controlled rate thermal analysis

The cyclic and Controlled Rate Thermal Analysis method (CRTA) has been used. The two rates automatically selected in the cyclic curve are small enough to allow the two states of the sample to be compared have nearly the same reacted fraction. Thus, the activation energy can be calculated without previous knowledge of the actual reaction mechanism. Provided that the activation energy,E, is known, a procedure has been developed for determining the kinetic law obeyed by the reaction by means of master curves that represent the values of the reacted fraction, α, as a function of?E/R(1/T-1/T _0.5),T _0.5 being the temperature at which α=0.5. This procedure has been tested by studying the thermal decomposition reaction of BaCO₃.     

Vibronic coupling in molecules and in solids

We utilize the experience gained in our previous studies on the "chemistry of vibronic coupling" in simple homonuclear and heteronuclear molecules to begin assembling theoretical guidelines for the construction of potentially superconducting solids exhibiting large electron-phonon coupling. For this purpose we analyze similarities between vibronic coupling in isolated molecules and in extended solids. In particular, we study vibronic coupling along the antisymmetric stretch coordinate (Q(as)) in linear symmetric AAA molecules, and along the optical phonon "pairing" mode coordinate (Q(opt)) in corresponding one-dimensional [A]( infinity ) chains built of equidistant A atoms. This is done for a broad range of chemical elements (A). The following similarities between vibronic coupling in molecules and phonon coupling in solids emerge from our calculations: 1) The HOMO/LUMO electronic energy gap in an AAA molecule increases along Q(as), and the highest occupied crystal orbital/lowest unoccupied crystal orbital gap in [A]( infinity ) chain increases along Q(opt). 2) The maximum vibronic instability is invariably obtained for a half-filled, singly occupied molecular orbital in AAA molecules, and for a corresponding half-filled band in [A]( infinity ) chains. 3) The vibronic stability of an AAA molecule increases with a decrease of the AA bond length, as does the vibronic stability of [A]( infinity ) chains (external pressure may lead to a reversal of a Peierls distortion). 4) The high degree of s-p mixing and ionic/covalent forbidden curve crossing dramatically enhance the vibronic instability of both AAA molecules and [A]( infinity ) chains. We also introduce one quantitative relationship: The parameter log(R) (where R is molar refractivity, a parameter used by Herzfeld to prescribe the conditions for the metallization of the elements) correlates with a parameter f(AA) (defined as twice the electronegativity of A, divided by the equilibrium AA bond length), used by two of us previously to describe vibronic coupling in AAA molecules for a broad range of elements (A=halogen, H, or an alkali metal). We hope to illustrate that key chemical aspects of vibronic coupling in simple molecules may thus be profitably transferred to corresponding materials in the solid state.     

快速简便测定有机电致发光材料HOMO能级的电化学方法

采用多层结构有利于提高有机电致发光 (ｏｒ ｇａｎｉｃｅｌｅｃｔｒｏｌｕｍｉｎｅｓｃｅｎｃｅ ,ＯＥＬ)器件的效率和寿命[1 3] 。为了有依据地选择多层有机材料 ,就要准确表征其能带。表征有机材料能带的一些方法有的因为得不到理想结果、有的因为仪器昂贵未被普遍采用[4] 。而用电化学方法 (如循环伏安法 )表征有机材料的能带所用仪器设备简单 ,操作方便 ,被广泛使用。常用ＯＥＬ器件中所选用有机物的氧化、还原电位较大 ,体系中的少量杂质 (如水、氧气等 )的电化学活性就会表现出来。因此 ,须保证体系在测定时水、氧气的含量足够低。…     

固态有机反应新进展

总结了一些典型的固态有机反应。由于固态反应的特性，多数固态有机反应表现出较溶液中更高的反应效率和更好的选择性，在某些情况下，利用光活性主体与反应物形成包结物，可实现对映选择性的不对称固态合成。     

Two Types of Uncertainty in the Values of Activation Energy

The activation energies of the same process are often reported to have different values, which are usually explained by the differences in experimental conditions and sample characteristics. In addition to this type of uncertainty, which is associated with the process (ΔE _process) there is an uncertainty related to the method of computation of the activation energy (ΔE _method). For a method that uses fitting single heating rate data to various reaction models, the value of ΔE _method) method is large enough to explain significant differences in the reported values of the activation energy. This uncertainty is significantly reduced by using multiple heating rate isoconversional methods, which may be recommended for obtaining reference values for the activation energy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Simultaneous determination of the activation energy and the reaction kinetic model from the analysis of a single curve obtained by a novel method

It has been demonstrated that a single plot of the values of Δlnα^1/2/Δln(1-α) (taken from a single α?T curve obtained under a controlled linear increase of the reaction rate) as a function of the corresponding values of Δ(1/T)/Δln(1?α) permits the simultaneous determination of both the activation energy and the kinetic model in accordance with a solid state reaction.     

Multivariate versus univariate calibration for nonlinear chemiluminescence data: Application to chromium determination by luminol-hydrogen peroxide reaction

Multivariate calibration is tested as an alternative to model chromium(III) concentration versus chemiluminescence registers obtained from luminol-hydrogen peroxide reaction. The multivariate calibration approaches included have been: conventional linear methods (principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS)), nonlinear methods (nonlinear variants and variants of locally weighted regression) and linear methods combined with variable selection performed in the original or in the transformed data (stepwise multiple linear regression procedure). Both the direct and inverse univariate approaches have been also tested.

The use of a double logarithmic transformation previous to the linear regression has been also evaluated. A new double logarithmic transformation previous to the linear regression is proposed in order to avoid the effect of the noise in the calibration model. Pre-processing, optimization and prediction ability of the multivariate calibration models has been studied at nine different experimental conditions including batch and FIA measurements. Box-plots, PCA and cluster analysis have been employed to test the prediction ability of the different models tested. Nonlinear PCR and nonlinear PLS provide the best results. Real samples have been analyzed and compared with the reference method. The results confirm the successful use of the proposed methodology.     

A simple and rapid method for the determination of particle size in emulsions from ultrasound data

Oil droplet size in emulsions can be determined from ultrasound velocity and attenuation spectra. We show that explicit solutions of the acoustic scattering matrix may be used to rapidly calculate a mean particle size for a limited but useful range of particle sizes. Our technique is well suited to in-line measurement. Both modelling and experiment indicate that the main scattering mechanism is thermal scattering. Calculations using the explicit solutions have been compared with experimental results from sunflower oil-in-water emulsions.     

Binary amorphous solids consisting of 2,4,6-triarylphenoxyl radicals and their dimers

Although molecular amorphous materials represent an important area of research in solid-state chemistry, studies pertaining to these systems have been restricted almost exclusively to amorphous solids based on a single molecule. In this study, we found that, while the 2,4,6-bis(4-tert-butylphenyl)phenoxyl radical (2_M) and its dimer (2_D) did not give single-component amorphous solids, they rapidly formed the corresponding binary amorphous solid IIa following their condensation from benzene, dichloromethane, chloroform, and ethyl acetate solutions. The formation of IIa could be attributed to the good solubilities of 2_M and 2_D in these solvents and the high packing efficiencies of these amorphous solids. IIa was also obtained when crystals of 2_D (IIb) were ground together. The solid-state formation of IIa would not only involve the locational exchange of 2_M and 2_D, but would also involve chemical exchanges.     

Design of an optical sensor for indirect determination of isoniazid

The characterization of an optical sensor membrane is described for indirect determination of isoniazid. The sensing membrane was consisted of immobilized 3-(2-pyridyl)-5,6-diphenyl-1,2,4-triazine (PDT) on a triacetylcellulose membrane. The procedure is based on the reaction of Fe(III) with isoniazid in the presence of PDT. Fe(III) is reduced by isoniazid to Fe(II) which forms a complex with PDT. The complex shows an absorption maximum at 558nm. By measuring the absorbance of the complex at this wavelength, isoniazid can be determined in the range of 0.62-6.15mugmL(-1). This method was applied to the determination of isoniazid in pharmaceutical formulation and enabled the determination of isoniazid in microgram quantities.     

Thermochemistry data from kinetics results: A test of quality of the potential energy surface

A straightforward test of the quality of potential energy surfaces in polyatomic systems is proposed based on obtaining thermochemical properties, in this case, standard enthalpies of formation, from kinetics results. Agreement with experiment lends confidence to the PESs, and the disagreement serves to help improve them.     

In-situ monitoring of the formation of crystalline solids

The processes occurring during the early stages of the formation of crystalline solids are not well understood thus preventing the rational synthesis of new solids. The investigation of the structure-forming processes is an enormous challenge for both analytical and theoretical methods because very small particles or aggregates with different chemical composition and different sizes must be probed, both before and during nucleation. Furthermore, these precursors are present in a complex and dynamic equilibrium. This Review gives a survey of the in-situ methods available for the study of the early stages of crystallization of solids and how they can help in the synthesis of metastable polymorphs, of transient intermediates, and/or precursors displaying new or improved properties. Examples of actual research demonstrate the necessity and potentials but also the limitations of in-situ monitoring of the formation of crystalline solids.     

A concerted approach for the determination of molecular conformation in ordered and disordered materials

We present the successful application of a concerted approach for the investigation of the local environment in ordered and disordered phases in the solid state. In this approach we combined isotope labeling with computational methods and different solid-state NMR techniques. We chose triphenylphosphite (TPP) as an interesting example of our investigations because TPP exhibits two crystalline modifications and two different amorphous phases one of which is highly correlated. In particular we analyzed the conformational distribution in three of these phases. A sample of triply labeled 1-[13C]TPP was prepared and 1D MAS as well as wide-line 13C NMR spectra were measured. Furthermore we acquired 2D 13C wide-line exchange spectra and used this method to derive highly detailed information about the phenyl orientation in the investigated TPP phases. For linkage with a structure model a DFT analysis of the TPP molecule and its immediate environment was carried out. The ab initio calculations of the 13C chemical shift tensor in three- and six-spin systems served as a base for the calculation of 1D and 2D spectra. By comparing these simulations to the experiment an explicit picture of all phases could be drawn on a molecular level. Our results therefore reveal the high potential of the presented approach for detailed studies of the mesoscopic environment even in the challenging case of amorphous materials.     

On evaluate of the integral methods for the determination of the activation energy

Recently, Órfão obtained two simple equations for the estimation of the relative error in the activation energy calculated by the integral methods [2]. In this short communication, the validity of the equations has been evaluated by comparing the results calculated by the equations with the results calculated by the equation from theoretical derivation without introducing any assumption.     

Structure and thermoelectric properties of Cs-Bi-Te alloys fabricated by different routes of reduction of oxide reagents

Cesium-bismuth-telluride polycrystalline materials were fabricated using a cost-effective method based on a reduction of oxide reagents, leading to a production of a material with good thermoelectric properties. Several samples with various initial stoichiometry were prepared by melting of oxide powders at 1050 °C, quenching, milling to powders and then reducing in pure hydrogen at 400 °C. Another concept was to obtain the CsBi₄Te₆ material without a melting stage. Composition of the samples was analyzed by the XRD and EDX methods. The sample with 96% of CsBi₄Te₆ phase was obtained in a way of reduction of oxide reagents. Thermoelectric properties of fabricated samples were also investigated.