A diffusion Monte Carlo study of small para-hydrogen clusters

An improved Monte Carlo diffusion model is used to calculate the ground state energies and chemical potentials of parahydrogen clusters of three to forty molecules, using two different p-H₂-p-H₂ interactions. The improvement is due to three-body correlations in the importance sampling, to the time step adjustment and to a better estimation of statistical errors. In contrast to path-integral Monte Carlo results, this method predicts no magic clusters other than that with thirteen molecules.      

From collisions to clusters: first steps of sulphuric acid nanocluster formation dynamics

The clustering of sulphuric acid with base molecules is one of the main pathways of new-particle formation in the Earth's atmosphere. First step in the clustering process is likely the formation of a (sulphuric acid)₁(base)₁(water)_n cluster. Here, we present results from direct first-principles molecular dynamics collision simulations of (sulphuric acid)₁(water)_{0, 1} + (dimethylamine) → (sulphuric acid)₁(dimethylamine)₁(water)_{0, 1} cluster formation processes. The simulations indicate that the sticking factor in the collisions is unity: the interaction between the molecules is strong enough to overcome the possible initial non-optimal collision orientations. No post-collisional cluster break up is observed. The reasons for the efficient clustering are (i) the proton transfer reaction which takes place in each of the collision simulations and (ii) the subsequent competition over the proton control. As a consequence, the clusters show very dynamic ion pair structure, which differs from both the static structure optimisation calculations and the equilibrium first-principles molecular dynamics simulations. In some of the simulation runs, water mediates the proton transfer by acting as a proton bridge. In general, water is able to notably stabilise the formed clusters by allocating a fraction of the released clustering energy.     

Ag309团簇升温过程中结构转变的分子动力学模拟研究

采用分子动力学模拟研究了具有面心立方(fcc)晶格结构的截断八面体Ag309团簇升温过程中结构演变.对团簇的能量曲线变化、快照图演变和键对分析表明:无缺陷截断八面体Ag309团簇在410 K时转变为二十面体,在840 K时熔化;不同缺陷诱导二十面体结构转变温度异常变化,沿晶面滑移缺陷使二十面体转变温度升高,沿晶面旋转缺陷使二十面体结构转变温度降低;不同缺陷对团簇键型和势能产生的影响是使二十面体结构转变温度异常变化的主要诱导因素.这种通过缺陷控制团簇结构转变的研究为新型纳米结构的可控制备提供理论基础.     

Inhibition of iron corrosion in 0.5 M sulphuric acid by metal cations

Corrosion inhibitors are widely used in acid solutions during pickling and descaling. Mostly organic compounds containing N, O, and S groups are employed as inhibitors. In this study, the inhibition performance of metal cations such as Zn²⁺, Mn²⁺ and Ce⁴⁺ ions in the concentration range 1-10 × 10⁻³ M has been found out. The corrosion behaviour of iron in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ in the presence of metal cations is studied using polarization and impedance methods. It is found that the addition of these metal cations inhibits the corrosion markedly. The inhibition effect is in the following order Ce⁴⁺ ? Mn²⁺ > Zn²⁺.     

Hydration and translocation of an excess proton in water clusters: Anab initio molecular dynamics study

The hydration structure and translocation of an excess proton in hydrogen bonded water clusters of two different sizes are investigated by means of finite temperature quantum simulations. The simulations are performed by employing the method of Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics where the forces on the nuclei are obtained directly from ‘on the fly’ quantum electronic structure calculations. Since no predefined interaction potentials are used in this scheme, it is ideally suited to study proton translocation processes which proceed through breaking and formation of chemical bonds. The coordination number of the hydrated proton and the index of oxygen to which the excess proton is attached are calculated along the simulation trajectories for both the clusters.     

Tween-40 as corrosion inhibitor for cold rolled steel in sulphuric acid: Weight loss study, electrochemical characterization, and AFM

The inhibition action of a non-ionic surfactant of tween-40 on the corrosion of cold rolled steel (CRS) in 0.5-7.0 M sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) was studied by weight loss and potentiodynamic polarization methods. Atomic force microscope (AFM) provided the surface conditions. The inhibition efficiency increases with the tween-40 concentration, while decreases with the sulphuric acid concentration. The adsorption of inhibitor on the cold rolled steel surface obeys the Langmuir adsorption isotherm equation. Effect of immersion time was studied and discussed. The effect of temperature on the corrosion behavior of cold rolled steel was also studied at four temperatures ranging from 30 to 60 °C, the thermodynamic parameters such as adsorption heat, adsorption free energy and adsorption entropy were calculated. A kinetic study of cold rolled steel in uninhibited and inhibited acid was also discussed. The kinetic parameters such as apparent activation energy, pre-exponential factor, rate constant, and reaction constant were calculated for the reactions of corrosion. The inhibition effect is satisfactorily explained by both thermodynamic and kinetic parameters. Polarization curves show that tween-40 is a cathodic-type inhibitor in sulphuric acid. The results obtained from weight loss and potentiodynamic polarization are in good agreement, and the tween-40 inhibition action could also be evidenced by surface AFM images.     

小碳团簇结构的从头算分子动力学模拟

引入第一原理密度泛函理论, 即赝势密度泛函在实空间的有限差分方法和朗之万分子动力学退火技术, 对碳团簇Cn(n=2-8)的基态结构进行了理论计算, 所得结果与其他作者的计算结果及实验数据吻合较好.     

A prospective DFT study for assembling highly reactive clusters based on lithium boranes and alanates

In this work, first-principles calculations using the density functional theory are performed to study the structure, stability and electronic properties of lithium borohydrides (boranes) and lithium aluminohydrides (alanates). With the attachment of BH₄ and AlH₄ complexes to the Li atom, the electron affinity increases to 5.22 eV and 4.34 eV, in the clusters Li(BH₄)₂ and Li(AlH₄)₂, respectively, which indicate superhalogen behaviour. For the alanates, by decorating the Li atom with the superhalogen moiety, the electron affinity increases to 4.64 eV, in the large-sized cluster Li[Li(AlH₄)₂]₂. The substitution of Al for B leads to larger NBO charges on the H atoms, as a result of the electron- donating character of the Al atom. The results show that, besides larger gravimetrical storage capacities, the boranes also have higher electron affinities than the alanates in the large-sized clusters. The significant HOMO-LUMO differences indicate that the new moieties, which are highly reactive, are chemically very stable species.     

A classical molecular dynamics study of a Diels Alder cycloaddition in supercritical water

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the Diels Alder cycloaddition of cyclopentadiene and methyl vinyl ketone in high pressure, high temperature water. It was found that the reaction was favoured by high temperatures at 1000?atm due to increasing entropy. Similarly, at 400?atm, the entropy caused both the equilibrium and rate constant to increase to a peak at 698?K before rapidly falling once more with increasing temperature. At a constant temperature of either 598?K or 898?K, increasing pressure resulted in a lowering of the equilibrium constant. This effect was significantly more pronounced for 898?K, caused by less favourable solvation of the products and an increasing amount of work required for reaction.     

Fragmentation and reliable size distributions of large ammonia and water clusters

The interaction of large ammonia and water clusters in the size range from <n> = 10 to 3 400 with electrons is investigated in a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The clusters are generated in adiabatic expansions through conical nozzles and are nearly fragmentation free detected by single photon ionization after they have been doped by one sodium atom. For ammonia also the (1+1) resonance enhanced two photon ionization through the state with v = 6 operates similarly. In this way reliable size distributions of the neutral clusters are obtained which are analyzed in terms of a modified scaling law of the Hagena type [Surf. Sci. 106, 101 (1981)]. In contrast, using electron impact ionization, the clusters are strongly fragmented when varying the electron energy between 150 and 1 500 eV. The number of evaporated molecules depends on the cluster size and the energy dependence follows that of the stopping power of the solid material. Therefore we attribute the operating mechanism to that which is also responsible for the electronic sputtering of solid matter. The yields, however, are orders of magnitude larger for clusters than for the solid. This result is a consequence of the finite dimensions of the clusters which cannot accommodate the released energy. Received 21 November 2001     

Experimental evidence for molecular ultrafast dissociation in O<Subscript>2</Subscript> clusters

Resonant Auger spectra of O₂ clusters excited at the O1s edge are reported. After excitation to the repulsive 1s^-13σ^* state, the resulting resonant Auger spectrum displays features that remain constant in kinetic energy as the photon energy is detuned. The shift between known atomic fragment features and these features is consistent with that observed for atoms and clusters in singly charged states in direct photoemission. These findings are strong evidence for the existence of molecular ultrafast dissociation processes within the clusters or on their surface.     

Microhydration of oxalic acid leading to dissociation

The effect of microhydration on the simplest dicarboxylic acid, namely oxalic acid, leading to the dissociation of its proton, is studied using first principle-based electronic structure calculations. The geometry of the hydrated clusters of oxalic acid considering up to seven water molecules is determined at ωB97X-D/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory. Solvent stabilisation and interaction energy parameters are calculated applying CCSD(T) level of theory. The calculated free energy of formation shows that the hydrated oxalic acid clusters are stable only at low temperature and pressure. Though the solvent stabilisation energy increases linearly with an increase in the size of the hydrated cluster, the calculated interaction energy, acidic O–H bond dipole moment and hydrogen bond energy show characteristic features of ion pair formation. The spectral manifestation of the weakening hydroxyl bond is observed as red shift in its stretching frequency. A rigid potential energy scan, altering the dissociating O–H bond length of the oxalic acid molecule, shows an energy barrier for acid to water proton transfer in all cases except hepta-hydrate of oxalic acid, where a barrier-less proton transfer occurs. The number of water molecules (n) needed for dissociation of oxalic acid molecule is consistent with the value obtained from recently reported emperical correlation between n and pKa.     

Predictions of geometrical structures and ionization potentials for small barium clusters Ba

The geometrical structure of ground state Ba_n clusters (n =2-14) has been predicted from various types of calculations including two ab initio approaches used for the smaller sizes namely HF+MP2( n =2-6), DFT (LSDA)( n =2-6, 9) and one model approach HF+pairwise dispersion used for all sizes investigated here. The lowest energy configurations as well as some isomers have been investigated. The sizes n =4, 7 and 13 are predicted to be the relatively more stable ones and they correspond to the three compact structures: the tetrahedron, the pentagonal bipyramid and the icosahedron. The growth behavior from Ba₇ to Ba₁₃ appears to be characterized by the addition of atoms around a pentagonal bipyramid leading to the icosahedral structure of Ba₁₃ which is consistent with the observed size-distribution of barium clusters. Values for vertical ionization potentials calculated for n =2-5 at the CI level are seen to be in quite good agreement with recent measures. Received: 14 May 1997 / Received in final form: 2 February 1998 / Accepted: 27 February 1998     

Surface tensions and stress tensors of liquid and solid clusters by molecular dynamics

Surface tension and pressure (stress) tensors of Lennard-Jones clusters, in the size range 200 ~ 2700 atoms/cluster, formed from evaporating liquid droplets were calculated in a Molecular Dynamics simulation. Icosahedral clusters have a much larger surface tension than decahedral, fcc, and hcp ones, meanwhile asymmetric icosahedral clusters have a lower surface tension. Fcc and hcp clusters have a very small surface tension. Decahedral clusters have a surface tension closer to that of fcc and hcp ones than to that of icosahedral ones, though both icosahedral and decahedral structures have five fold symmetry axis. Binary component clusters have a higher surface tension than single component ones.     

Structural and energetic properties of sodium clusters

In this work we present results from a theoretical study on the properties of sodium clusters. The structures of the global total-energy minima have been determined using two different methods. With the parameterized density-functional tight-binding method (DFTB) combined with a genetic-algorithm we investigated the properties of Na_N clusters with cluster size up to 20 atoms, and with our own Aufbau/Abbau algorithm together with the embedded-atom method (EAM) up to 60 atoms. The two sets of results from the independent calculations are compared and a stability function is studied as function of the cluster size. Due to the electronic effects included in the DFTB method and the packing effects included in the EAM we have obtained different global-minima structures and different stability functions.     

Surface effect on the coalescence of Pt clusters: A molecular dynamics study

We have performed molecular dynamics simulations for Pt_N + Pt_N → Pt_2N (N = 147, 324, 500,792), to investigate the effect of size and substrate on coalescence temperature. Our simulations show that platinum nanoclusters coalesce at the temperatures lower than the cluster melting point. The difference between coalescence and melting temperatures decreases with the increase in cluster size and presence of substrate. These thermal behaviors affect catalytical properties of nanoclusters and the substrate, as an environment, has major effect on activity of metal nanoclusters.     

Classical simulations of magnetic structures for chromium clusters: Size effects

Classical (Heisenberg) simulations show that the total magnetization of the lowest-energy states of clusters made of antiferromagnetically coupled chromium atoms is planar, rather than collinear, depending on the arrangement of the atoms. Although the model Hamiltonian is not restrictive, many cluster configurations of various numbers of atoms do not use all three directions for the spins. This result confirms the conclusion drawn from the local-spin DFT calculation by Kohl and Bertsch that clusters of N≤13 have non-collinear magnetic moments. The present simulations show non-collinear spin ordering also for bigger clusters, designed to be as spherical as possible following the bcc arrangement, when atoms interact both with the nearest and next-nearest neighbours. Depending on the signs of the coupling constants frustration appears. The advantage of the discrete model, despite the simplicity, is that very large clusters and magnetization at finite temperatures can be studied. This model predicts that clusters with specific numbers of atoms interacting only with the nearest neighbours have collinear spins as in the bulk. We also apply the model to simulate the destruction of the anti-ferromagnetic ordering by thermal fluctuations. This model shows no unique magnetization of mixed Fe _0.33 Cr _0.67, which is consistent with experimental observations.     

Effect of vacancy defect clusters on the optical property of the aluminium filter used for the space solar telescope

We investigate the microstructures of the pure aluminium foil and filter used on the space solar telescope, irradiated by photons with different doses. The vacancy defect clusters induced by proton irradiation in both samples are characterized by transmission electron microscopy, and the density and the size distribution of vacancy defect clusters are determined. Their transmittances are measured before and after irradiating the samples by protons with energy E=100~keV and dose φ =6× 10¹¹/mm². Our experimental results show that the density and the size of vacancy defect clusters increase with the increase of irradiation doses in the irradiated pure aluminium foils. As irradiation dose increases, vacancies incline to form larger defect clusters. In the irradiated filter, a large number of banded void defects are observed at the agglomerate boundary, which results in the degradation of the optical and mechanical performances of the filter after proton irradiation.