Novel metal-encapsulated caged clusters of silicon and germanium

We report the recent findings of metal (M) encapsulated clusters of silicon from computer experiments based on ab initio total energy calculations and a cage shrinkage and atom removal approach. Our results show that using a guest atom, it is possible to wrap silicon in fullerenelike (f) structures, as sp² bonding is not favorable to produce empty cages unlike for carbon. Transition M atoms have a strong bonding with the silicon cage that are responsible for the compact structures. The size and structure of the cage change from 14 to 20 Si atoms depending upon the size and valence of the M atom. Fewer Si atoms lead to relatively open structures. We find cubic, f, Frank-Kasper (FK) polyheral type, decahedral, icosahedral and hexagonal structures for M@Si_n with n = 12-16 and several different M atoms. The magic behavior of 15 and 16 atom Si cages is in agreement with experiments. The FK polyhedral cluster, M@Si₁₆ has an exceptionally large density functional gap of about 2.35 eV calculated within the generalized gradient approximation. It is likely to give rise to visible luminescence in these clusters. The cluster-cluster interaction is weak that makes such clusters attractive for cluster assembled materials. Further studies to stabilize Si₂₀ cage with M = Zr, Ba, Sr, and Pb show that in all cases there is a distortion of the f cage. Similar studies on M encapsulated germanium clusters show FK polyhedral and decahedral isomers to be more favorable. Also perfect icosahedral M@Ge₁₂ and M@Sn₁₂ clusters have been obtained with large gaps by doping with divalent M atoms. Recent results of the H interaction with these clusters, hydrogenated silicon fullerenes as well as assemblies of clusters such as nanowires and nanotubes are briefly presented.     

The mechanism of acetate oxidation on Ag(110)

The effects of coadsorbed oxygen atoms and gaseous O₂ at pressures up to 0.7 Torr on the stability of the surface acetate intermediate on Ag(110) were investigated. Under an O₂ pressure of 0.7 Torr acetate decomposes at temperatures as low as 400 K, which is 200 K lower than the decomposition temperature of acetate in vacuum. This destabilization is due to population of the surface with atomic oxygen when 0.7 Torr O₂ is present. Acetate reacts with coadsorbed oxygen atoms via an intermediate which decomposes at 340 K to CO₂, water and formate. The formate subsequently decomposes at 400 K to give CO₂ and H₂. Through the use of isotopic labelling, it was found that the carbon and hydrogen atoms in the formate originate from the methyl group of the acetate, while the two oxygen atoms come from surface atomic oxygen. A mechanism for the reaction of acetate with atomic oxygen is presented in which a surface oxygen atom abstracts a proton from the acetate, and the resulting CH₂COO_(a) species reacts further with another oxygen atom to form a glycolate (O₂CCH₂O_(a)) intermediate. Nucleophilic attack at the methylene carbon by an oxygen atom, followed by C-C bond scission releases CO₂ and forms H₂CO_2(a), which subsequently loses a hydrogen atom to make formate. The results presented here show that acetate will decompose under commercial ethylene oxidation conditions, and thus cannot be ruled out as an intermediate in the total oxidation of ethylene. Isomerization of ethylene oxide to acetaldehyde, followed by oxidation of the acetaldehyde is a plausible route to acetate formation during ethylene oxidation. In addition, this work demonstrates that phenomena which occur at high pressures can be observed in ultra high vacuum provided the relevant surface species can be formed in vacuum and remain on the surface up to the temperatures at which the high pressure phenomena occur.     

A density functional theoretic study of novel silicon-carbon fullerene-like nanostructures: Si40C20, Si60C20, Si36C24, and Si60C24

Fullerene-like silicon nanostructures with twenty and twenty-four carbon atoms on the surface of the Si₆₀ cage by substitution, as well as inside the cage at various orientations have been studied within the generalized gradient approximation to density functional theory. Full geometry optimizations have been performed without any symmetry constraints using the Gaussian 03 suite of programs and the LANL2DZ basis set. Thus, for the silicon atom, the Hay-Wadt pseudopotential with the associated basis set is used for the core electrons and the valence electrons, respectively. For the carbon atom, the Dunning/Huzinaga double zeta basis set is employed. Electronic and geometric properties of these nanostructures are presented and discussed in detail. Optimized silicon-carbon fullerene like nanostructures are found to have increased stability compared to the bare Si₆₀ cage and the stability depends on the number and the orientation of carbon atoms, as well as on the nature of silicon-carbon and carbon-carbon bonding.     

内掺过渡金属富勒烯衍生物Ni@C20H20几何结构、成键和电磁性质的密度泛函计算研究

采用密度泛函理论中的广义梯度近似对Ni@C₂₀H₂₀的几何结构、成键和电磁性质进行密度泛函计算研究.结构优化发现位于偏离笼子中心三种位置处的Ni原子优化之后均回到笼子中心.结合能和能隙分析表明C₂₀H₂₀的中心位置是Ni原子热力学和动力学最稳定的位置.成键分析表明：Ni原子位于C₂₀H₂₀中心时,和C原子之间几乎没有相互作用,保持自己的孤立状态.电磁分析表明：原子磁矩为2关键词： 20H₂₀')" href="#">C₂₀H₂₀ 20H₂₀')" href="#">Ni@C₂₀H₂₀ 几何结构 成键 电磁性质 密度泛函理论     

Structural and optical properties of the M@C59X cages (X=N,B and M=Li,Na)

Using B3LYP/6-31G* density functional level of theory, the structural and optical properties of the C₆₀ and M@C₅₉X cages have been investigated. Results indicate that the charge on C atoms and band gap of C₆₀ cage are changed dramatically with the substitution of one B or N atom at one of the C sites and the Li and Na atom encapsulations in the C₆₀ cage. The Mulliken analyses show that the charge is transferred completely between the alkali atoms and the C₅₉X cage. The substitutional and encapsulation doping (SED) reduce the optical gaps of the C₆₀ cage. Also, the oscillator strengths of the absorption peaks are dependent on dopant types.     

Molecular dynamics simulations of carbon dioxide hydrate growth in electrolyte solutions of NaCl and MgCl2

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the growth of carbon dioxide (CO₂) hydrate in electrolyte solutions of NaCl and MgCl₂. The kinetic behaviour of the hydrate growth is examined in terms of cage content, density profile, and mobility of ions and water molecules, and how these properties are influenced by added NaCl and MgCl₂. Our simulation results show that both NaCl and MgCl₂ inhibit the CO₂ hydrate growth. With a same mole concentration or ion density, MgCl₂ exhibits stronger inhibition on the growth of CO₂ hydrate than NaCl does. The growth rate of the CO₂ hydrate in NaCl and MgCl₂ solutions decreases slightly with increasing pressure. During the simulations, the Na⁺, Mg²⁺, and Cl^? ions are mostly excluded by the growing interface front. We find that these ions decrease the mobility of their surrounding water molecules, and thus reduce the opportunity for these water molecules to form cage-like clusters toward hydrate formation. We also note that during the growth processes, several 5¹²6³ cages appear at the hydrate/solution interface, although they are finally transformed to tetrakaidecahedral (5¹²6²) cages. Structural defects consisting of one water molecule trapped in a cage with its hydrogen atoms being attracted by two Cl^? ions have also been observed.     

Structural and electronic properties of endohedral phosphorus fullerene P@C60: an off-centre displacement of P inside the cage

Single P-doped endohedral P@C₆₀ is investigated via semiempirical and first-principles calculations. Unlike the encased N atom, which is situated on the centre of the C₆₀ cage and not covalently bound to the carbon atoms of the fullerene cage, static geometric optimization shows that the encased P atom occupies an off-centre position and is bound to the carbon atoms of the fullerene cage. The electronic ground state of the doped system is the spin quarter state, with spin density distribution significantly compressed by the cage.     

Electronic transport properties of graphene/Al2O3 (0001) interface

The electronic structure and transport properties of a single layer of graphene (Gr) on α-Al₂O₃ surface are studied using the density functional theory (DFT). We present three models that take into account the atom at the termination of the alumina surface: a) Al atoms, with the center of the Gr hexagon directly over an Al atom; b) Al atoms, with a carbon directly positioned above an Al atom; c) oxygen atoms. Two processes of geometric optimization were used: (i) All the atoms of the supercell were allowed to move in accordance with the BFGS quasi-Newton algorithm; (ii) The atoms of the three topmost layers of the α-Al₂O₃ (0001) slab, including the C atoms, were allowed to move, whereas the atoms of the remaining layers were frozen in their respective atomic bulk positions. The first two models preserve qualitatively the electronic structure of the pristine Gr using the geometric optimization process (i) whereas, in the third model this structure was lost due to a significant charge transfer between the carbon and oxygen atoms irrespective of the optimization procedure. However, models (a) and (b) with the optimization (ii) reveal a p-type semiconducting behavior.     

Neutron powder diffraction study of methane deuterohydrate by the maximum entropy method

To examine the nature of thermal motions of the CH₄ molecules in the methane deuterohydrate (8CH₄·46D₂O), the scattering length density distribution was observed by the maximum entropy method (MEM) using neutron powder diffraction data measured in the temperature range of 7-185 K. We drew the scattering-length density distribution as three dimensional graphic images and used the same isosurface level for all temperatures. The negative scattering length density, corresponding to the H atoms of CH₄, was observed only in the large cage. The positive scattering length density attributed to the C atom of CH₄ was observed at the center of each cage. With an increase in temperature, the negative and positive scattering length densities in the large cage disappear. The positive scattering length density remains at the center of the small cage regardless of temperature. These results strongly indicate that the motions of CH₄ depend on the cage size and geometry.     

Side bands of the vibrational spectrum of interstitial elements in a metal lattice

The dynamics of oxygen atoms in Ta-O solid solution has been studied by the slow-neutron inelastic scattering method. Indications have been obtained for the existence of vibration-rotation excitations of an interstitial atom in a metal lattice. In addition to the peaks corresponding to the fundamental oscillations of a harmonic oscillator (?ω_1,2 ≈ 42 meV and ?ω₃ ≈ 82 meV), side bands with an energy of ? ≈ ?ω₃ ± 6 meV are observed in the atomic oxygen spectrum. Analysis of the spectral structure leads to the assumption that the observed satellites are attributed to vibration-rotation excitations of an impurity oxygen atom in the field of metal atoms surrounding it. The oxygen atom is probably displaced in the basal plane from the center of the octahedral interstice of the crystal lattice and can freely move along a slightly corrugated energy channel around the geometric center of the octahedron. The energy position of the side bands are in good agreement with the excitation energies estimated in the model of the superposition of two circular motions of the oxygen atom in the basal plane of the tantalum lattice near the center of the octahedral interstice.     

Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of high energy cluster impact on diamond surface

Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with high acceleration energy on a diamond surface were performed in order to investigate the surface erosion process. Accelerated argon or CO₂ clusters (∼960 atoms, 100 keV/cluster) impacted on the (111) surface of diamond which consisted of more than 1,000,000 carbon atoms. A typical hemispherical crater appeared about 0.7 ps after the impact, and two or three-layered shockwaves were formed and propagated to certain directions, but the crater was immediately filled up with the fluidized hot carbon material due to the collective elastic recovery before the reflection of the shockwave. The impact energy of the cluster was at first transferred mainly as kinetic energy of the diamond surface in a short time, and the potential energy was activated later. The activated carbon and oxygen atoms from the impact cluster stimulated the evaporation from the diamond surface for the CO₂ cluster impact while the evaporation seemed to be suppressed by the argon atoms themselves for the argon cluster impact. Received 22 November 2000     

Theoretical study of the adsorption of CO2 on tungsten carbide nanotubes

The adsorption of CO₂ on the single-walled tungsten carbide nanotubes has been investigated employing density functional theory method. The center of a hexagon of tungsten and carbon atoms in sites on tungsten carbide nanotube surfaces is the most stable adsorption site for CO₂ molecule, with a binding energy of −1.68 eV (−38.72 kcal/mol) and a WO binding distance of 1.95 Å. Furthermore, the adsorption of CO₂ on the single-walled carbon nanotubes has been investigated. Our first-principles calculations predict that the CO₂ adsorptive capacity of tungsten carbide nanotubes is about quadruple that of carbon nanotubes. This might have potential for greenhouse gas detection and bioremediation.     

Ab initio molecular dynamics investigations of structural, electronic and dynamical properties of water in supercritical carbon dioxide

Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of a solitary perdeuterated water molecule solvated in supercritical carbon dioxide have been performed along an isotherm at three different densities. Electron donor-acceptor interactions between the oxygen atom of water and the carbon atom of CO₂ as well as hydrogen bonded interactions between the two molecules have been shown to play a dominant role in the solvation. The mean dipole moment of the water molecule increases with the density of the solution, from a value of 1.85 D at low density to around 2.15 D at the highest density. The increase in the solvent density causes the water molecule to exhibit a range of behavior, from a free molecule to one that interacts strongly with CO₂. A blue shift in the bending mode of water has been observed with increasing solvent density. The carbon dioxide molecules which are present in the first neighbor shell of water are found to exhibit larger propensity to deviate from a linear geometry in their instantaneous configurations.      

Adsorbate-induced transition between different mechanisms of laser-stimulated desorption

2 were measured as a function of laser fluence, number of laser pulses, and oxygen exposure. If the laser fluence exceeds 10 mJ/cm² desorption from clean particles occurs as a thermal reaction. Oxygen exposure as low as 1 L causes a strong decrease in the number of desorbed atoms and dimers. For larger oxygen coverages desorption of Na₂O molecules is observed and, surprisingly, the atom signal recovers. At this stage, the underlying mechanism is substantially different from that for clean particles. The results can be explained by a model that takes into account the formation of a Na₂O layer around a Na core and diffusion of Na atoms through the oxide layer prior to desorption. Received: 15 December 1997/Accepted: 16 December 1997     

An Auger spectroscopic study of the kinetic behavior of adsorbed oxygen on palladium

The adsorption of oxygen on polycrystalline palladium, the kinetics of the reaction of adsorbed oxygen with carbon monoxide and the amount of adsorbed oxygen present during the catalyzed reaction, $\text{CO +}\text{1}\text{2}\text{O}{}_2\text{→ CO}{}_2$, were studied by Auger electron spectroscopy. At temperatures below 783 K, the initial sticking probability is high (~0.8). Adsorbed oxygen and CO react with high probability and low activation energy to form carbon dioxide. The reaction is first order with respect to carbon monoxide pressure and zero order in oxygen coverage. Oxygen coverages measured during the CO-oxidation reaction decrease sharply around P_CO ? P_O2 and are very small when P_CO >P_O2. The reaction kinetics are discussed using a modified Eley-Rideal mechanism involving strongly adsorbed oxygen atoms and surface carbon monoxide in a short-lived state. The oxygen adsorption phenomena are correlated with the reaction kinetics.     

Detection of oxygen atoms in a high pressure surfatron microwave discharge via two-photon four-wave mixing

3 P_J) oxygen atoms are detected in a high pressure surface wave discharge driven at 2.45 GHz via two-photon resonant degenerate four-wave mixing spectroscopy (TP-DFWM) in the forward folded BOX configuration. The nonlinear optical signal provides a direct measure of the relative oxygen atom concentration with high spatial resolution inside the discharge up to pressures of 1 bar and without distortions due to linear absorption or saturation effects. The axial distribution of oxygen atom concentration is observed to depend sensitively on total pressure and gas flux. For total gas pressures up to 600 mbar both in case of a mixture of 10% O₂/He and 10% O₂/Ar the concentration of oxygen atoms increases linearly with pressure. At higher pressures an increase with larger slope is observed for 10% O₂/Ar, while the concentration remains constant for 10% O₂/He. This is interpreted by an increase of the three-body recombination rate in O₂/He mixtures. Received: 26 July 1996/Revised version: 15 November 1996     

电子束引起的残余含氧气体在镍(001)面上的吸附

当一束具有一定能量和强度的电子束轰击超高真空系统中残余的水汽、一氧化碳和二氧化碳时,将导致这些气体分子通过如下反应:H₂O→O_ad+H₂,CO₂→O_ad+CO,CO→O_ad+C_ad分解并共吸于镍表面。碳和氧的原子各自占据镍(001)面部份四重吸附位置,形成结构为p(2×2)或c(2×2)的许多独立的吸附畴,电子束轰击促进畴的成核、长大、连结和有序化。当氧和碳的原子占据了镍(001)面约一半的四重吸附位后,上述吸附反应将与导致氧和碳的脱附反应:C^*+O_ad→CO,O^*+C_ad→CO平衡,氧化镍与碳化镍开始成核。由于残余含氧气体中氧的含量超过碳,氧化镍成核占优势,使碳的吸附被排斥,已吸附的碳被排挤,形成电子束斑内氧高碳低、束斑外碳高氧低的“互补”分布。电子束轰击过程中碳的俄歇峰形的变化反映着碳原子与基底原子的不同结合状态。电子束的解离效应在吸附的初始阶段起重要作用,而其热效应对氧化镍的长大起重要作用。 关键词：     

Molecular dynamics simulation for sodium atom in and on the two layers of C150H 30 graphite plane

For inspection of thermal behaviors of sodium (Na) atom in the bulk and on the surface of two layered hydrogen terminated cluster model, 2C₁₅₀H₃₀, the molecular dynamics calculation was taken place at molecular mechanics 2 level. From the requirement of structural optimization, interlayer distance of 2C₁₅₀H₃₀ is 3.38 Å which is consistent with the observed value. In the cluster models intercalated and adsorbed by one Na atom, C₁₅₀H₃₀·Na·C₁₅₀H₃₀ and Na·2C₁₅₀H₃₀, respectively, the Na atom is stabilized beneath and above the nearest central carbon atom, C₀, in the upper layer where the distances, Na-C₀, are 2.76 and 3.16 Å, respectively. Adsorption of the Na atom to the surface has no influence on the geometrical structure of cluster model, whereas, intercalation to two layers expands the interlayer distance maximally to 5.01 Å which will be responsible for the carbon expansion of graphite electrode in cryolite melt-alumina slurries. Diffusion processes are observed above 200 K for the Na atoms stabilized in both sites. Although the Na atom migrates parallel to the layers in the range between 200 and 300 K in C₁₅₀H₃₀·Na·C₁₅₀H₃₀, it moves above the carbon layer from the center to the circumference periodically below 250 K and gets out at 300 K for Na·2C₁₅₀H₃₀. The migration rates of Na atom are almost the same irrespective of the diffusion areas.     

PbWO4晶体中的填隙氧及其对晶体光学性质的影响

运用GULP计算软件模拟计算了PbWO₄(PWO)晶体中不同位置的填隙氧原子点缺陷的生成能，计算结果表明：当填隙氧原子存在于(WO₄)^2-的周围时，填隙氧原子点缺陷的生成能最低；进一步运用基于密度泛函理论的全数值自洽DV-Xα方法计算了包含填隙氧原子的PWO晶体的态密度，计算结果表明：当填隙氧处在(WO₄)^2-的周围时，容易与(WO₄)^2-上的一个或两个氧离子相互作用形成分子离子O₂^2-或O₃^4-，通过分析这些计算结果，认为PWO晶体中350 nm吸收带的出现很可能与晶体中的氧分子离子有关.     

Molecular dynamics calculation on three lithium atoms in planar cluster model C150H30 for glassy carbon

As the preliminary step to elucidate the charge-discharge mechanism in the glassy carbon cathode of lithium (Li) secondary battery, the molecular dynamics (MD) calculation was applied at molecular mechanics 2 (MM2) level for three Li atoms stabilized in the form of regular triangle in the central area of the hydrogen terminated planar cluster, C₁₅₀H₃₀. The stabilized Li sites are given on the basis of the structural optimization. Up to 10 K, the triangular Li aggregate kept at almost the same figure as that formed by three stabilization sites, rotating parallel to the cluster plane, goes around the central area of it, whereupon interatomic vibrational stretching is observed. Below 75 K, the aggregate of three Li atoms separates to a pair of two atoms and one Li atom arbitrarily, however, reformation of the pair occurs periodically among three atoms with the lapse of simulation time. Then, three Li atoms move correlatively irrespective of the long interatomic distance of 18 Å at maximum. However, at 100 K one Li atom goes out of the cluster model directly and the rest of two atoms continues the revolutional movement with the rotation as a pair in the central area of the cluster model. Thus, three Li atoms show the appreciably stable movements in the glassy carbon by forming the aggregate or the atomic pair, which will be responsible for the hysteresis in the charge-discharge cycle of lithium secondary battery.