Calculation of the size dependence of the ionization energy and autoionization energy of Hg-clusters

To study the transition from van der Waals to metallic bonding we calculate the size dependence of the ionization energy and 5d→6p autoionization energy of Hg _n -clusters using a parametrized LCAO model. Our results are in good qualitative agreement with experiment. Comparison with experimental results suggests that electron correlations play an important role for the transition from localized (van der Waals-like) to delocalized (covalent or metallic) electronic states occuring in Hg _n atn?13–19.     

Calculation of the electronic properties of neutral and ionized divalent-metal clusters

The electronic properties of neutral and ionized divalent-metal clusters have been studied using a microscopic theory, which takes into account the interplay between van der Waals (vdW) and covalent bonding in the neutral clusters, and the competition between hole delocalization and polarization energy in the ionized clusters. By calculating the ground-state energies of neutral and ionized Hg _n clusters, we determine the size dependence of the bond character and the ionization potentialI _p (n). For neutral Hg _n clusters we obtain a transition from van der Waals to covalent behaviour at the critical sizen _c ～10–20 atoms. Results forI _p (Hg _n ) withn≤20 are in good agreement with experiments, and suggest that small Hg _n ⁺ clusters can be viewed as consisting of a positive trimer core Hg ₃ ⁺ surrounded byn?3 polarized neutral atoms.     

Resonant two-photon ionization spectra of o,p, m-xylene...Ar n (n = 1, 2)

The resonant two-photon ionization technique (R2PI) is used to study jet-cooled van der Waals (vdW) complexes o, p, m-xylene...Ar _n (n = 1, 2) through the S ₁ ← S ₀ transition around the origin band. We have tentatively assigned the main spectral features of these vdW complexes. The transitions of these complexes are red-shifted from those of the monomers. The influence of the substituent positions on the vdW vibrations is investigated.     

Large and Fast Single‐Crystal Resistive Humidity Sensitivity of Metal Pnictide Halides Containing van der Waals Host–Guest Interactions

Two new metal pnictide halides, (Hg_9.75As_5.5)(GaCl₄)₃ and (Hg₁₃Sb₈)(ZnBr₄)₄, have been prepared by solid‐state reactions. Their structures feature 3D cationic host frameworks built of mercury pnictide polyhedra and form 1D tunnels filled with discrete guest halide polyanions; the guests and hosts are assembled by van der Waals interactions. Both complexes exhibit good single‐crystal humidity sensitivity, with a humidity sensitivity factor as big as three orders of magnitude, a quick resistance response, fast recovery, and good reproducibility. This study provide a new way to design promising resistive humidity detectors by introducing van der Waals host–guest interactions into their structures.     

Long-range interaction between Hg*(1,3P1) and noble gas atoms

The long-range, van der Waals interaction is considered for the system M^*(nsnp ^1,3P₁)/noble gas (¹S₀), where M^* is any atom with two valence electrons outside closed shells. An important “correlation” effect is shown to arise due to the different symmetry properties of the spatial parts of the singlet and triplet wavefunctions; this is the direct analogue of the effect of angular correlation in the ground-state problem. Detailed calculations are carried out for Hg^*(6s6p ^1,3P₁) interacting with the noble gases.     

Application of significant structure theory of liquids to critical phenomena. Calculation of critical-point exponents

Three critical-point exponents β, δ, γ and the corresponding coefficients B, D and G are calculated using significant structure theory. The results are compared with those obtained from the van der Waals equation, Berthelot's equation and the Dieterici equation. The significant structure theory and the van der Waals equation behave similarly in the critical region. All these equations of state predict a finite C_ν at the critical point.     

Electron energy loss spectroscopy of van-der-Waals clusters

A method to measure electron energy loss spectra (EELS) of clusters with a high resolution (30 meV) has been developed and has been applied to some van der Waals clusters (Ar _n , Kr _n ). Structures have been found which relate to the excitation of atoms on the surface and inside the cluster. An influence of the cluster size on the spectra has been observed.     

Vacuum-UV photoemission-photoion coincidence spectroscopy of neutral metal atom clusters

A newly developed photoion-photoelectron Vacuum-UV coincidence spectrometer has been coupled to a supersonic metal atom cluster beam source and has been used to investigate the electronic structure of isolated mercury clusters in the size range from 1 to 110 at several selected discrete excitation energies between 11.3 and 7.1 eV. Excitation of the van der Waals cluster Hg₁₀ at the center of the strongD _3/2-autoionization line at 10.7 eV yields a photoelectron kinetic energy distribution between 0 and 2.5 eV indicating the population of Hg₁₀ ionic states, which are also accessible by threshold ionization.     

Ionic Liquids: Dissecting the Enthalpies of Vaporization

We calculate the heats of vaporisation for imidazolium‐based ionic liquids [C_nmim][NTf₂] with n=1, 2, 4, 6, 8 by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and discuss their behavior with respect to temperature and the alkyl chain length. We use a force field developed recently. The different cohesive energies contributing to the overall heats of vaporisations are discussed in detail. With increasing alkyl chain length, the Coulomb contribution to the heat of vaporisation remains constant at around 80 kJ mol^?1, whereas the van der Waals interaction increases continuously. The calculated increase of about 4.7 kJ mol^?1 per CH₂‐group of the van der Waals contribution in the ionic liquid exactly coincides with the increase in the heats of vaporisation for n‐alcohols and n‐alkanes, respectively. The results support the importance of van der Waals interactions even in systems completely composed of ions.     

CEPA calculations of potential energy surfaces for open-shell systems.: III. Van der Waals interaction between O(3P) and He(1S)

Quantum-chemical ab initio calculations have been performed for the van der Waals interaction between helium and oxygen atoms in their respective ground states: He(¹S)+ O(³P). As long as fine-structure effects are neglected, there are two low-lying electronic states, ³Σ^? and ³Π resulting from the degeneracy of the O(³P) ground state. Both states are purely repulsive at the SCF level, after inclusion of electronic correlation by the CEPA method they exhibit shallow van der Waals (dispersion) minima at large interatomic separation: R_? = 3.61 Å, ? = 1.0 meV (³Σ^?) and R_? = 3.05 Å, ? = 2.3 meV (³Π). The analysis of the results shows the very slow convergence of the dispersion interaction with increasing basis size, while SCF repulsion and the repulsion due to the change of the intra-atomic correlation are obtained reasonably accurately with moderate basis stes. Van der Waals coefficients C₆, C₈, C₁₀, potential curves of the type HFD (i.e. Hartree-Fock plus damped dispersion) and the influence of fine-structure effects (mainly spin-orbit coupling) on the shape of the adiabatic potential curves are discussed as well.     

Mode-selective broadening in low-frequency vibrational modes of trans-stilbene van der waals complexes

Both RE2PI and LIF excitation spectra have been taken of several van der Waals complexes of trans-stilbene, p-methyl-, and m-methyl-trans-stilbene. The t-stilbene spectra reveal a strongly mode-dependent broadening of the van der Waals complex transitions associated with the low-frequency vibrations 82 and 95 cm⁻¹ above the origin. The fwhm of these peaks is three times as broad as any other feature in the spectrum. The source of the broadening appears to be fast vibrational relaxation from these modes to the van der Waals modes of the complex.     

Elastic and reactive collisions of atoms and molecules with neutral alkali clusters

We have measured absolute integral cross sections for low-energy collisions of atoms and molecules with neutral sodium clusters over a wide cluster size range (n=2–40). The cross sections are exceptionally large, reaching values of thousands of square angstroms. Consequently, the scattering involves long-range interactions. The van der Waals force, acting either alone (Na_n+N₂) or in concert with the inelastic charge-transfer “harpooning” channel (Na_n+Cl₂, Na_n+O₂) can describe the measurements. Using interaction parameters taken from spectroscopic studies of alkali clusters, we find very good agreement with the data. This provides a point of contact between beam scattering experiments and studies of cluster electromagnetic response properties.     

On the transition from localized to delocalized electronic states in divalent-metal clusters

The transition from van der Waals to covalent bonding, which is expected to occur in divalent-metal clusters with increasing cluster size, is discussed. We propose a model which takes into account, within the same electronic theory, the three main competing contributions, namely the kinetic energy of the electrons, the Coulomb interactions between electrons, and thes ?p intraatomic transitions responsible for van der Waals like bonding. The model is solved by taking into account electron correlations using a generalized Gutzwiller approximation (slave boson method). The occurrence of electron localization is studied as a function of the interaction parameters and cluster size.     

P, p, T Surfaces of real gases and the Riemann-Hugoniot catastrophe

Analysing experimentally determined P, ?, T data of N₂, ethylene, propene, CO₂ and Xe by a new mathematical technique, we present evidence that their isothermal pressure-density dependence exhibits behaviour characteristic of a Riemann-Hugoniot catastrophe, in analogy to a van der Waals gas for above and sub critical isotherms.     

Evolution of bulk-like properties in mercury microclusters

The transition from non-metallic to metallic behavior of mercury microclusters, Hg _n , withn ranging from 2 to 79, is investigated using first principles tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital method. Then dependence of the ionization potential, the cohesive energy, the energy gap, and the nature of the bonding indicates metallic behavior for Hg _n withn≧80. The average bond length of Hg clusters is found to be larger than that of the bulk. Our results are in good agreement with experiments.     

Semiclassical calculation of energy transfer in polyatomic molecules. XI. Cross sections and rate constants for Ar + CO2

Data from electron gas calculation on the short-range potential and theoretical van der Waals coefficients C_n (n = 6, 8) have been used to construct a potential surface for the Ar+CO₂ system. The surface has been used to calculate: second virial coefficient, viscosity and diffusion coefficient, rotational relaxation rates, rate constants for vibrational transitions in CO₂ and high-enery/small-angle differential cross sections.     

Photoionization mass spectrometry of molecular clusters using synchrotron radiation

The photoionization and dissociative ionization of molecular aggregates using synchrotron radiation is reported. The main objective of the review is to consider the intracluster relaxation processes after ionization. For hydrogen-bonded systems proton transfer is dominant. For small clusters (n<4) appearance potentials, ionization potentials, absolute proton affinities, proton solvation energies and intermolecular bond energies in the ionic clusters are deduced. For van der Waals aggregates proton transfer can also be used to characterize the intermolecular bond in the ionic cluster. Aggregates of CH₄, SiH₄, CH₃F show proton transfer in contrast to simple aromatic compounds, which reveal no proton transfer. From the fragmentation pattern and appearance potentials relaxation by intracluster ion molecule reactions is discussed. In heterogeneous clusters intracluster Penning ionization is observed. The shift of the charge transfer resonances depends on the π-electron density in the aromatic system. The width and spectral position of these resonances are influenced by the cluster size.     

Electron bombardment fragmentation of size selected molecular clusters

(CO₂) _n , (NO) _n and (NH₃) _n clusters are generated in a supersonic molecular beam and size selected by scattering from an He beam. By measurements of angular dependent mass spectra, TOF distributions and the angular dependence of the scattered signal quantitative information on the fragmentation probability by electron impact is derived. The van der Waals systems (CO₂) _n and (NO) _n appear only at masses which are simply multiples of the monomer mass. The preferred cluster ion is the monomer ion for all investigated cluster sizes withn=2 to 4. The fragment pattern for the quasi-hydrogen bonded (NH₃) _n -cluster shows, beside a large number of fragment masses, a preference for protonated ions. The results are explained in terms of simple models based on the structural change from the neutral to the ionized configuration and the fragmentation pattern of the monomer followed by ionmolecule reactions.     

Determination of vibrational level spacings of van der waals molecules from the Lennard-Jones potential

An approximate expression for the eigenvalues for van der Waals molecules by use of the Lennard-Jones (12-6) potential in the WKB approximation is presented. The expression is applied to the rare gas molecules. Ar₂, Kr₂, and Xe₂ by fitting the potential function to the observed potential parameters. Calculated results of vibrational energy spacings for these molecules agree well with the experiment and other calculations which are based on numerical integration of the Schrödinger equation. For Xe₂, the energy spacing expression is used to determine the thermodynamic functions of the van der Waals bond.