Electronic and vibrational properties of fluorenone in the channels of zeolite L

Fluorenone (C13H8O) was inserted into the channels of zeolite L by using gas-phase adsorption. The size, structure, and stability of fluorenone are well suited for studying host-guest interactions. The Fourier transform IR, Raman, luminescence, and excitation spectra, in addition to thermal analysis data, of fluorenone in solution and fluorenone/zeolite L are reported. Normal coordinate analysis of fluorenone was performed, based on which IR and Raman bands were assigned, and an experimental force field was determined. The vibrational spectra can be used for nondestructive quantitative analysis by comparing a characteristic dye band with a zeolite band that has been chosen as the internal standard. Molecular orbital calculations were performed to gain a better understanding of the electronic structure of the system and to support the interpretation of the electronic absorption and luminescence spectra. Fluorenone shows unusual luminescence behavior in that it emits from two states. The relative intensity of these two bands depends strongly on the environment and changes unexpectedly in response to temperature. In fluorenone/zeolite L, the intensity of the 300 nm band (lifetime 9 micros) increases with decreasing temperature, while the opposite is true for the 400 nm band (lifetime 115 micros). A model of the host-guest interaction is derived from the experimental results and calculations: the dye molecule sits close to the channel walls with the carbonyl group pointing to an Al3+ site of the zeolite framework. A secondary interaction was observed between the fluorenone's aromatic ring and the zeolite's charge-compensating cations.     

Multidimensional reactive scattering with quantum trajectories: dynamics with Morse vibrational modes

The reactive scattering of a wave packet is studied by the quantum trajectory method for a model system with up to 25 Morse vibrational modes. The equations of motion are formulated in curvilinear reaction path coordinates with the restriction to a planar reaction path. Spatial derivatives are evaluated by the least squares method using contracted basis sets. Dynamical results, including trajectory evolution and time-dependent reaction probabilities, are presented and analyzed. For the case of one Morse vibrational mode, the results are in good agreement with those derived through direct numerical integration of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.     

Multidimensional reactive scattering with quantum trajectories: dynamics with 50-200 vibrational modes

The dynamics of ensembles containing thousands of quantum trajectories are studied for multidimensional systems undergoing reactive scattering. The Hamiltonian and equations of motion are formulated in curvilinear reaction path coordinates, for the case of a planar (zero-torsion) reaction path. In order to enhance the computational efficiency, an improved least squares fitting procedure is introduced. This scheme involves contracted basis sets and the use of inner and outer stencils around points where fitting is performed. This method is applied to reactive systems with 50-200 harmonic vibrational modes which are coupled to motion along the reaction coordinate. Dynamical results, including trajectory evolution and time-dependent reaction probabilities, are presented and power law scaling of computation time with the number of vibrational modes is described.     

Relating normal vibrational modes to local vibrational modes with the help of an adiabatic connection scheme

Information on the electronic structure of a molecule and its chemical bonds is encoded in the molecular normal vibrational modes. However, normal vibrational modes result from a coupling of local vibrational modes, which means that only the latter can provide detailed insight into bonding and other structural features. In this work, it is proven that the adiabatic internal coordinate vibrational modes of Konkoli and Cremer [Int. J. Quantum Chem. 67, 29 (1998)] represent a unique set of local modes that is directly related to the normal vibrational modes. The missing link between these two sets of modes are the compliance constants of Decius, which turn out to be the reciprocals of the local mode force constants of Konkoli and Cremer. Using the compliance constants matrix, the local mode frequencies of any molecule can be converted into its normal mode frequencies with the help of an adiabatic connection scheme that defines the coupling of the local modes in terms of coupling frequencies and reveals how avoided crossings between the local modes lead to changes in the character of the normal modes.     

Intermolecular vibrational modes and orientational dynamics of cooperative hydrogen-bonding dimer of 7-azaindole in solution

We observed the low-frequency Raman-active intermolecular vibrational modes of 7-azaindole in CCl(4) by femtosecond Raman-induced Kerr effect spectroscopy. To understand the dynamical aspects and vibrational modes of 7-azaindole in the solution, the ultrafast dynamics of 1-benzofuran in CCl(4) was also examined as a reference and ab initio quantum chemistry calculations were performed for 7-azaindole and 1-benzofuran. The cooperative hydrogen-bonding vibrational bands of 7-azaindole dimer in CCl(4) appeared at 89 cm(-1) and 105 cm(-1) represent the overlap of stagger and wheeling modes and the intermolecular stretching mode, respectively. They are almost independent of the concentration in the solution. We further found from the low-frequency differential Kerr spectra of the solutions with neat CCl(4) that the intermolecular motion in the low frequency region below 20 cm(-1) was less active in the case of 7-azaindole/CCl(4) than in the case of 1-benzofuran/CCl(4). The slow orientational relaxation time in 7-azaindole/CCl(4) is ~3.5 times that in 1-benzofuran/CCl(4) because of the nature of the dimerization of 7-azaindole.     

Raman study of vibrational relaxation of acetonitrile in solution

Line widths of isotropic Raman spectra of the ν₁ (a₁) CH or CD stretching bands of acetonitrile CH₃CN and CD₃CN were measured in a number of solvents. The vibrational dephasing theory, modified for use in binary mixtures, predicts quantitatively the solvent dependence of the Raman line widths.     

Population dynamics in vibrational modes during non-Born-Oppenheimer processes: CARS spectroscopy used as a mode-selective filter

The coupling of specific nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom of a molecular system during non-radiative electronic transitions plays a central role in photochemistry and photobiology. This breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation during processes such as internal conversion determines the mechanism and product distribution of photochemical reactions and is responsible for the high efficiency of photobiological processes. In order to explore this phenomena in beta-carotene, a molecule that plays a primary role as an auxiliary light-harvesting pigment in photosynthesis, a spectroscopic method was employed that allows for the individual vibrational modes to be monitored selectively within the dynamics of an internal conversion process. This spectroscopic technique employs an initial pump laser to excite the molecule into an excited electronic state and resolves the subsequent relaxation process by interrogating the system with a time-delayed, coherent anti-Stokes Raman process (CARS), which acts as a mode-selective filter for observing the population flow within specific vibrational modes with a time resolution in the femtosecond regime.     

Homogeneous nucleation of water in mesoporous zeolite cavities

In this paper, we show that water inside mesoporous cavities in zeolites can be supercooled to ca. -40 degrees C at which point homogeneous nucleation of the water takes place. The fundamental phenomena observed here are similar to those reported earlier in for example emulsion droplets or droplets in the vapor phase. However, as these zeolite materials are widely available, they may provide an easily accessible source for studies of supercooled liquids in confinements. Next to this, it is now possible to discriminate with thermoporometry between mesoporous cavities inside the zeolite crystals, in which homogeneous nucleation takes place, and mesopores that are connected to the external surface in which heterogeneous nucleation takes place.     

On the secondary structure of some vibrational bands of acetonitrile

The occurrence of shoulders on some Ramani bands of acetonitrile in relation to the formation of molecular clusters is discussed.     

Low-frequency vibrational modes and static vibrational hyperolarizabilities of long-chain molecules: polyenes and polyacetylene

A model for calculating vibrational frequencies of Transverse Acoustical Modes (TAM) of all-trans polyenes of any length is presented. Based on the results obtained, the relevance of TAM modes in determining static vibrational polarizability and second vibrational hyperpolarizability of very long polyenes (polyacetylene) in real materials is discussed. The major role of the Effective Conjugation Coordinate (ECC) in determining the second vibrational hyperpolarizability is also presented and compared to that of the TAM modes.

The results obtained point out the limitations of calculations on isolated molecules when the behaviour of real materials in the low-frequency domain is under investigation.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of the cation motion upon adsorption of CO2 in Faujasite zeolite systems

Molecular Dynamics simulations have been carried out in NaX and NaY Faujasite systems to deepen understanding of the cation rearrangement during the CO2 adsorption process suggested by our recent diffusivity measurements. This study is a major contribution since the rearrangement of the cations in Faujasite, the most promising adsorbent for CO2 storage, can represent a significant breakthrough in understanding the adsorption and diffusion processes at the mircroscopic scale. For NaY, it has been shown that at low and intermediate loadings, SII cations can migrate toward the center of the supercage due to strong interactions with the adsorbates, followed by a hopping of SI'cation from the sodalite cage into the supercage to fill the vacant SII site. The SI cations are only displaced at a higher loading, leading to cation de-trapping out of the double six rings into the vacant SI' sites. For NaX, the SIII' cations which occupy the most accessible adsorption sites move significantly upon coordination to the carbon dioxide molecules. The SI' and SII cations remain consistently located in their initial sites whatever the loading. Indeed, the most probable migration mechanism involves SIII' cation displacements into nearby vacant SIII' sites.     

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations with a backward-forward trajectories sampling for multidimensional infrared spectroscopy of molecular vibrational modes

A full molecular dynamics (MD) simulation approach to calculate multidimensional third-order infrared (IR) signals of molecular vibrational modes is proposed. Third-order IR spectroscopy involves three-time intervals between three excitation and one probe pulses. The nonequilibrium MD (NEMD) simulation allows us to calculate molecular dipoles from nonequilibrium MD trajectories for different pulse configurations and sequences. While the conventional NEMD approach utilizes MD trajectories started from the initial equilibrium state, our approach does from the intermediate state of the third-order optical process, which leads to the doorway-window decomposition of nonlinear response functions. The decomposition is made before the second pump excitation for a two-dimensional case of IR photon echo measurement, while it is made after the second pump excitation for a three-dimensional case of three-pulse IR photon echo measurement. We show that the three-dimensional IR signals are efficiently calculated by using the MD trajectories backward and forward in time for the doorway and window functions, respectively. We examined the capability of the present approach by evaluating the signals of two- and three-dimensional IR vibrational spectroscopies for liquid hydrogen fluoride. The calculated signals might be explained by anharmonic Brownian model with the linear-linear and square-linear system-bath couplings which was used to discuss the inhomogeneous broadening and dephasing mechanism of vibrational motions. The predicted intermolecular librational spectra clearly reveal the unusually narrow inhomogeneous linewidth due to the one-dimensional character of HF molecule and the strong hydrogen bond network.     

Intramolecular vibrational redistribution in the vibrational predissociation dynamics of He-I2

The intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) process is investigated in wave packet simulations of the vibrational predissociation dynamics of He-I(2)(B,upsilon') in the region of high upsilon' levels, upsilon' = 35-65. The simulations indicate that for upsilon' < or = 45 the dynamics is dominated by direct predissociation, whereas for higher upsilon' levels the onset of IVR appears and becomes increasingly important. The IVR process occurs via coupling of the initial state in the upsilon' manifold to intermediate long-lived resonances belonging to the lower upsilon < upsilon' vibrational manifolds. The IVR dynamics manifests itself in multiexponential behavior and oscillations in the time-dependent population curves associated with the He-I(2)(B,upsilon') initial state, the He-I(2)(B,upsilon < upsilon') intermediate complexes, and the final product states. The population curves corresponding to the upsilon'- 1 intermediate resonances located below the He + I(2)(B,upsilon'-1,j=0) dissociation limit are analyzed. It is found that initial population is transferred to all the intermediate resonance states considered, including those more separated in energy from the initial one. The results obtained for population transfer between the initial and the intermediate states can be explained by the intensity of the matrix elements coupling the initial and the intermediate resonances, in combination with the Rabi's formula for population exchange between two coupled states.     

The nature of the adsorption sites in Na-A zeolite

The formation of carbonate-like compounds in adsorption of CO₂ on Na-A zeolite does not determine the type of changes in the heats of adsorption for degrees of filling of >1 molecule per unit cell (UC). The results of studies of the electrical properties of Na-A zeolite confirm the concepts that Na⁺ located in the eight-member rings are not the primary adsorption sites with respect to CO₂.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 6, pp. 1238–1243, June, 1990.     

Conformational heterogeneity and low-frequency vibrational modes of proteins

Molecular dynamics simulation and normal mode analysis are used to calculate the vibrational density of states of dihydrofolate reductase complexed with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate at 120 K and the results are compared with the experimental spectrum derived from inelastic neutron scattering. The simulation results indicate that the experimental spectrum arises from an average over proteins trapped in different conformations with structural differences mainly in the loop regions, and that these conformations have significantly different low-frequency (<20 cm(-1)) spectra. Thus, the experimentally measured spectrum is an average over the vibrational modes of different protein conformations and is thus inhomogeneously broadened. The implications of this broadening for future neutron scattering experiments and ligand binding calculations are discussed.     

Evidences for zeolite nucleation at the solid-liquid interface of gel cavities

The entire sequence of crystallization events, starting with formation of the initial organic-cation-free gel, proceeding through the zeolite nucleation stage, and finishing with complete transformation into LTA-type zeolite crystals, has been monitored by means of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Formation and development of voids, containing highly hydrated material transformed later into negative crystals, has been discovered in the solid part of the system. The evolution of these areas has been found to be an integral and noteworthy part of the chemical transformation of the gel that preceded the nucleation in the system. These void structures and, in particular, their solid-liquid interfaces have been identified as the specific locations where the formation of protozeolite nuclei took place. Further development of the system followed the classical for zeolite-yielding systems of crystallization that could be described by the autocatalytic model.     

Molecular dynamics simulations and instantaneous normal-mode analysis of the vibrational relaxation of the C-H stretching modes of N-methylacetamide-d in liquid deuterated water

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and instantaneous normal mode (INMs) analyses are used to study the vibrational relaxation of the C-H stretching modes (ν(s)(CH?)) of deuterated N-methylacetamide (NMAD) in aqueous (D2O) solution. The INMs are identified unequivocally in terms of the equilibrium normal modes (ENMs), or groups of them, using a restricted version of the recently proposed Min-Cost assignment method. After excitation of the parent ν(s)(CH?) modes with one vibrational quantum, the vibrational energy is shown to dissipate through both intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) and intermolecular vibrational energy transfer (VET). The decay of the vibrational energy of the ν(s)(CH?) modes is well fitted to a triple exponential function, with each characterizing a well-defined stage of the entire relaxation process. The first, and major, relaxation stage corresponds to a coherent ultrashort (τ(rel) = 0.07 ps) energy transfer from the parent ν(s)(CH?) modes to the methyl bending modes δ(CH?), so that the initially excited state rapidly evolves into a mixed stretch-bend state. In the second stage, characterized by a time of 0.92 ps, the vibrational energy flows through IVR to a number of mid-range-energy vibrations of the solute. In the third stage, the vibrational energy accumulated in the excited modes dissipates into the bath through an indirect VET process mediated by lower-energy modes, on a time scale of 10.6 ps. All the specific relaxation channels participating in the whole relaxation process are properly identified. The results from the simulations are finally compared with the recent experimental measurements of the ν(s)(CH?) vibrational energy relaxation in NMAD/D?O(l) reported by Dlott et al. (J. Phys. Chem. A 2009, 113, 75.) using ultrafast infrared-Raman spectroscopy.