Latex spheres as carriers of surface active centers

Poly(methyl methacrylate) spheres with surface-attached D,L-α-alanine were exposed to γ-irradiation. It was found that only one of the two known stable alanine radicals is generated on the polymer surface as a consequence of the bonding on the specific backbone group. The sensitivity of ESR spectroscopy for the determination of extremely small numbers of reactive sites was demonstrated.     

The effect of impregnation conditions on the surface structure of silica-supported CuO catalysts

CuO/SiO₂ catalysts with varying amounts of copper were prepard using meso- and microporous silica supports at pH > 10 and pH = 4.5. Structural and textural changes were followed using X-ray diffraction, TG and DTA techniques. Impregnation for periods > 10 days at high pH produces crystalline catalysts with two distinct peaks at d-spacings of 2.33 and 2.03 Å resulting from a surface silicate which is structurally stable up to 800°C. At copper concentrations > 5% CuO also forms. Catalysts prepared at pH = 4.5 are amorphous to X-rays in spite of the presence of CuO which may either be < 50 Å or from a surface solid solution. The copper ammine complex, if adsorbed on mesoporous silica, attains its maximum coordination number as [Cu(NH₃)₄(H₂O)₂]²⁺, whereas on microporous silica it loses the two water molecules as a result of pore restrictions. The surface complex releases its coordinated ammonia exothermally in the temperature range 200–400°C, whereas chemisorbed ammonia is evolved endothermally at ～280°C. Ligand water is evolved at <200°C. An exotherm at ～545°C is observed for all catalysts, resulting form the shrinkage of the solid/void matrix which disappears upon aging. Increase of copper content to 22.7% at high pH lowered the temperature of constant weight attainment from 1000°C for the pure silica to 750°C.     

On the nature of active centers in catalysts for propylene oxidation to acetone

Acid-base properties of binary tin-oxide catalysts for the oxidation of propylene to acetone have been studied. It has been revealed that active catalysts should have both Brönsted acid- and base centers.

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Nucleation on active centers in confined volumes

Kinetic equations describing nucleation on active centers are solved numerically to determine the number of supercritical nuclei, nucleation rate, and the number density of nuclei for formation both of droplets from vapor and also crystalline phase from vapor, solution, and melt. Our approach follows standard nucleation model, when the exhaustion of active centers is taken into account via the boundary condition, and thus no additional equation (expressing exhaustion of active centers) is needed. Moreover, we have included into our model lowering of supersaturation of a mother phase as a consequence of the phase transition process within a confined volume. It is shown that the standard model of nucleation on active centers (Avrami approach) gives faster exhaustion of active centers as compared with our model in all systems under consideration. Nucleation rate (in difference to standard approach based on Avrami model) is equal to the time derivative of the total number of nuclei and reaches some maximum with time. At lower nucleation barrier (corresponding to higher initial supersaturation or lower wetting angle of nucleus on the surface of active center) the exhaustion of active centers is faster. Decrease in supersaturation of the mother phase is faster at higher number of active centers.     

Origin of active copper electrocrystallization centers on platinum

The activation of a platinum electrode in an acid sulfate solution is studied on rotating and stationary disk electrodes by means of cyclic voltammetry. Rates of the adatom layer formation and the phase copper deposition significantly increase following use of a slow potential scan and/or agitation of electrolyte as a result of the interaction between adatoms or ions of copper with adsorbed or dissolved oxygen. Oxide compounds of copper are active centers of a two-dimensional growth of an adatom layer and a three-dimensional nucleation in the course of electrocrystallization.     

Investigation of electronic structure of impurity and defect centers on the surface of silica by the MNDO method

The electronic structure of cluster models of fragments of a. silica surface with defect centers [stressed disiloxane bridges, radical (Si, SiO) and ionic (Si⁺, SiO^–) groups] and impurity centers (boron and aluminum atoms) has been investigated by the MO-LCAO-SCF method in the MNDO approximation. It has been shown on the basis of an analysis of the energetics of the defect structures (with complete optimization of the geometry of the clusters) that the dehydroxylation of silica with the formation of radical and ionic centers is energetically significantly more favorable than is the formation of disiloxane bridges. The influence of impurity boron and aluminum atoms on the properties of the surface fragments of SiO₂ has been considered. It has been shown that the migration of impurity boron atoms, which isomorphously replace silicon atoms in the lattice, from the bulk to the surface of silica is energetically unfavorable.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 407–418, July–August, 1988.     

Quantum chemical models and electronic structure of active centers of heterogeneous polymerization of olefins

Conclusions The peculiarities of the catalytic activity in olefin polymerizations which can find explanation in terms of the concepts suggested in this work are as follows. First, the low catalytic activity of the individual organometal compounds of group IV-VI transition metals is indicative [53] of the important role of the coordination state of the transition metal in AC, which, according to Cosse's model, must be octahedral (tetrahedral for individual metal-alkyl compounds MR_n). Second, the activity of a catalytic system depends essentially on the nature of the ligand environment of the metal in AC. The catalysts based on titanium halides display the highest activity. Third, the results of [19, 20] show that the highly active catalytic centers of homogeneous Ziegler-Natta's systems are “cation-like” Zr(IV) complexes Cp2Zr⁺-R. All these features find explanation in terms of the concept of the competitive contributions from the AC metal s and d orbitals to the active M-R bond. Thus a transition of AC environment from tetrahedral to octahedral may be compared with a change in transition metal AO hybridization:d ³s¹ (tetrahedron) ⇒d ³s¹ (octahedron). Translated fromZhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 391–404, March–April, 2000.     

Managing polymer surface structure using surface active block copolymers in block copolymer mixtures

Surface coatings were prepared from semifluorinated monodendron surface‐active block copolymers (SABC) and a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) [poly(styrene‐b‐ethylene butylene‐b‐styrene)] by either spin‐casting a bilayer structure or by blending. The surface of these coatings was characterized by contact angle measurements, scanning force microscopy (SFM) and near‐edge X‐ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) methods. Both bilayers and blends resulted in very low energy surfaces under the right processing conditions and the liquid crystallinity of the semifluorinated monodendrons gave rise to temporally stable, non‐reconstructing surfaces in water. However for small thicknesses of the SABC top layer or for low SABC content blends, SFM shows islands of the fluorinated block of the SABC and incomplete surface coverage of the TPE, an observation confirmed by NEXAFS analysis. Very high water contact angles were produced by even modest amounts of SABC in either case but to achieve low contact angle hysteresis, it was necessary to produce uniform surface coverage by the SABC. Such uniform coverage can be accomplished by spin casting a top layer of SABC as thin as 60 nm in the bilayer case but at least 10 wt% SABC in TPE combined with drop casting of a hot solutions is needed for the blends to achieve equivalent surface structure and properties. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 411–420, 2004     

Histidine in enzyme active centers.

The presence of histidine in the active center of an enzyme can be demonstrated by kinetic measurements, chemical modification, NMR spectroscopy or X-ray structure analysis. Histidine is the only naturally occurring amino acid to contain an imidazole residue as a side chain. The role of histidine in enzyme catalysis depends, inter alia, upon the special features of the imidazole residue: it thus tends to form hydrogen bonds, combines donor and acceptor properties and can take part in either nucleophilic or base catalysis. In some of these enzymes the position of each atom is known; however, the theories as to how the catalysis proceeds at a molecular level are controversial.     

Oxygen adsorption induced superhydrophilic-to-superhydrophobic transition on hierarchical nanostructured CuO surface

Hierarchical nanostructured CuO surface was embellished to amplify the wettability. The pristine superhydrophilic CuO surface spontaneously transited to be superhydrophobic after exposed in air at room temperature for about 3 weeks. The wettability change is attributed to the adsorption of oxygen molecules on the topmost layer according to the surface chemical analysis. The adsorbed oxygen molecules could be removed by dipping the sample into l-Ascorbic acid solution for 10 s, leading to the recovery of the pristine superhydrophilicity.     

Dynamic surface tension measurements on surface active materials

Surface tension measurements by the Wilhelmy plate method are being done at our laboratory using an automatic balance. Surface-active material (surfactant) is spread as a monolayer on an air-water interface and a Pt plate, suspended from a micro-balance, is brought vertically into contact with the interface. The water is contained in a trough, two opposite sides of which can move independently, one producing a large variation in surface area and the other generating a longitudinal wave in the monolayer. This set-up is a new, asymmetric variant of the Benjamins-De Feyter method. Results of measurements on visco-elastic interfacial properties of model compounds of lung surfactant are reported.     

Dislocations as active centers in topochemical reactions

The kinetics and mechanism are discussed for the topochemical reaction of Al with Si produced by heat and localized pressure. The structure of the contact zone at the surface of the silicon is used to discuss the role of dislocations as active centers. The activations conditions for the silicon are deduced, together with the effective area of a center. The possible source of dislocations in deformed solids is discussed.     

Nucleation kinetics of folded chain crystals of polyethylene on active centers

Kinetic equations describing formation of nuclei of a new phase on active centers from supercooled melt taking into account exhaustion of active centers are solved numerically. Basic characteristics of nucleation process (total number of nuclei and nucleation rate) of folded chain crystals of polyethylene at low supercooling are determined and compared with measured data. Our model gives good coincidence with experimental measurements of the total number density of nuclei. Nucleation rate reaches some quasistationary limit at sufficiently long time, which is approximately 20% of the stationary nucleation rate determined by the standard way.