Proton dissociation and transfer in hydrated phosphoric acid clusters

The dynamics and mechanisms of proton dissociation and transfer in hydrated phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) clusters under excess proton conditions were studied based on the concept of presolvation using the H₃PO₄–H₃O⁺–nH₂O complexes (n = 1–3) as the model systems and ab initio calculations and Born–Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (BOMD) simulations at the RIMP2/TZVP level as model calculations. The static results showed that the smallest, most stable intermediate complex for proton dissociation (n = 1) is formed in a low local‐dielectric constant environment (e.g., ε = 1), whereas proton transfer from the first to the second hydration shell is driven by fluctuations in the number of water molecules in a high local‐dielectric constant environment (e.g., ε = 78) through the Zundel complex in a linear H‐bond chain (n = 3). The two‐dimensional potential energy surfaces (2D‐PES) of the intermediate complex (n = 1) suggested three characteristic vibrational and ¹H NMR frequencies associated with a proton moving on the oscillatory shuttling and structural diffusion paths, which can be used to monitor the dynamics of proton dissociation in the H‐bond clusters. The BOMD simulations over the temperature range of 298–430 K validated the proposed proton dissociation and transfer mechanisms by showing that good agreement between the theoretical and experimental data can be achieved with the proposed rate‐determining processes. The theoretical results suggest the roles played by the polar solvent and iterate that insights into the dynamics and mechanisms of proton transfer in the protonated H‐bond clusters can be obtained from intermediate complexes provided that an appropriate presolvation model is selected and that all of the important rate‐determining processes are included in the model calculations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Homolytic versus Heterolytic Dissociation of Alkalimetal Halides: The Effect of Microsolvation

Herein we report density functional calculations of homolytic and heterolytic dissociation energies of the diatomic alkalimetal halides MX (M=Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs and X=F, Cl, Br, I, and At) and their corresponding microsolvated structures MX?(H₂O)_n (n=1 to 4). Our results show that the homolytic dissociation energy of the MX?(H₂O)_n species increases with the number of water molecules involved in the microsolvated salts. On the other hand, the heterolytic dissociation energy follows exactly the opposite trend. As a result, while for the isolated diatomic alkalimetal halides, homolytic dissociation is always favored over heterolytic dissociation, the latter is preferred for CsF and CsCl already for n=2, and for n=4 it is the preferential mode of dissociation for more than half of the species studied.     

Fragmentation of sputtered vanadium and niobium cluster ions,kinetic release and dissociation energy

The generation and unimolecular fragmentation of V _n ⁺ and Nb _n ⁺ clusters formed in sputtering vanadium and niobium surfaces by Xe⁺ ions has been studied. The method of measuring the kinetic energy of fragment ions (kinetic energy release distribution) has been used to determine the dissociation energy. Kinetic energy spectra have been measured in the field-free zone (corresponding to a time window of 10⁻⁵–10⁻⁴ sec after emission) of an ion microanalyzer with double focusing in reverse geometry. The results of spectra measurement were treated using the Rice-Ramsperge-Kassel theory of unimolecular reactions and the “evaporative ensemble”, which allowed us to calculate the dissociation energies of homonuclear V _n ¹ (n= 5–11) and Nb _n ¹ (n = 3–8) clusters.     

Structures,Unimolecular Fragmentations,and Reactivities of the Self‐Assembled Multimetallic/Peptide Complexes [Mnn(GlyGly‐H)2n−1]+ and [Mnn+1(GlyGly‐H)2n]2+

Complexes of Mn²⁺ with deprotonated GlyGly are investigated by sustained off‐resonance irradiation collision‐induced dissociation (SORI‐CID), infrared multiple‐photon dissociation spectroscopy, ion–molecule reactions, and computational methods. Singly [Mn_n(GlyGly‐H)_2n?1]⁺ and doubly [Mn_n+1(GlyGly‐H)_2n]²⁺ charged clusters are formed from aqueous solutions of MnCl₂ and GlyGly by electrospray ionization. The most intense ion produced was the singly charged [M₂(GlyGly‐H)₃]⁺ cluster. Singly charged clusters show extensive fragmentations of small neutral molecules such as water and carbon dioxide as well as dissociation pathways related to the loss of NH₂CHCO and GlyGly. For the doubly charged clusters, however, loss of GlyGly is observed as the main dissociation pathway. Structure elucidation of [Mn₃(GlyGly‐H)₄]²⁺ clusters has also been done by IRMPD spectroscopy as well as DFT calculations. It is shown that the lowest energy structure of the [Mn₃(GlyGly‐H)₄]²⁺ cluster is deprotonated at all carboxylic acid groups and metal ions are coordinated with carbonyl oxygen atoms, and that all amine nitrogen atoms are hydrogen bonded to the amide hydrogen. A comparison of the calculated high‐spin (sextet) and low‐spin (quartet) state structures of [Mn₃(GlyGly‐H)₄]²⁺ is provided. IRMPD spectroscopic results are in agreement with the lowest energy high‐spin structure computed. Also, the gas‐phase reactivity of these complexes towards neutral CO and water was investigated. The parent complexes did not add any water or CO, presumably due to saturation at the metal cation. However, once some of the ligand was removed via CO₂ laser IRMPD, water was seen to add to the complex. These results are consistent with high‐spin Mn²⁺ complexes.     

Relativistic all-electron Dirac-Fock-Breit calculations on xenon fluorides (XeFn,n = 1, 2, 4, 6)

The MOLFDIR package of programs is used to perform fully relativistic all-electron Dirac-Fock and Dirac-Fock-Breit calculations for the the XeF_n (n = 1, 2, 4, 6) molecules assuming experimental symmetries. The Xe-F bound length for XeF₂, XeF₄, and XeF₆ is optimized and the total ground-state energies are reported. The variation of the relativistic energy and the Breit correction with the internuclear distance is plotted. The role of relativistic corrections in the proper prediction of the Xe-F distance and the dissociation energy of the molecule is discussed. The problem of the reduction of the number of scalar two-electron integrals is studied. Our results illustrate the possibilities, difficulties, and limitations of the finite basis Dirac-Fock calculations for polyatomic molecules of different symmetries. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

密度泛函方法研究卤族原子(F,Br,I)与银原子簇的相互作用

应用密度泛函理论计算方法研究了气相中的单个的F, Br, I原子吸附在中性和带正、负电荷的银原子团簇上的平衡几何构型 Ag_nX^0,±1 (X＝F, Br, I)、吸附能、电荷转移量以及碎片化模式, 并与先前研究过的氯原子在银原子簇上的吸附做了对比. 结果表明卤族原子在银原子簇上的吸附得到的相似的最稳定几何构型, 具有相似的吸附性质. 吸附能和电子转移量的大小顺序为F＞Cl＞Br＞I, 与电负性顺序相一致.     

How Many Water Molecules Does it Take to Dissociate HCl?

The potential energy surfaces of the HCl(H₂O)_n (n is the number of water molecules) clusters are systematically explored using density functional theory and high‐level ab initio computations. On the basis of electronic energies, the number of water molecules needed for HCl dissociation is four as reported by some experimental groups. However, this number is five owing to the inclusion of entropic factors. Wiberg bond indices are calculated and analyzed, and the results provide a quadratic correlation and classification of clusters according to the nondissociated, partially dissociated, and fully dissociated character of the H?Cl bond. Our computations show that if temperature is not controlled during the experiment, the values obtained for the dipole moment (or for any measurable property) are susceptible to change, providing a different picture of the number of water molecules needed for HCl dissociation in a nanoscopic droplet.     

Collisionally activated dissociation spectra of protonated methyl N-alkanoates studied using a triple quadrupole

The collisionally activated dissociation (CAD) spectra of protonated methyl n-alkanoates CH₃ (CH₂)_nCOOCH₃ with n = 1?9 were studied using a triple quadrupole. The influence of hydrocarbon chain length and collision energy on characteristic fragment ions such as those due to the loss of methanol was examined. It was found that most characteristic fragment ions became less important in the CAD spectra with increasing chain length of the esters and finally disappeared in the higher members of the series. Special care would have to be taken when trying to use such neutral losses in analysis for identifying the presence of a certain class of compounds.     

AM1 studies on the potential energy surface for the proton transfer in protonated water clusters,H+(H2O)n

The potential energy surfaces for the proton transfer processes in H⁺(H₂O)_n with n=2 ～ 11 have been studied using the semiempirical AM1 method. Two model systems were adopted: branched and linear systems. The branched system showed a tendency to form a bulk cluster, while the linear system showed a tendency toward a constant barrier height with increasing number of water molecules in the model system. The potential energy surfaces were discussed using Marcus theory. In the case of H⁺ (H₂O)_n with n=10 and 11, the intrinsic barrier to the proton transfer was found to be around 1.0 kcal/mol.     

Collision-induced dissociation studies of protonated alcohol and alcohol—water clusters by atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry. 1?Methanol

Cluster size distribution and collision-induced dissociation (CID) studies of protonated methanol and protonated methanol—water clusters yield information on the structure and energetics of such ions. Ions were formed at atmospheric pressure in a corona discharge source, and were subjected to CID in the center quadrupole of a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Cluster ions containing up to 13 molecules of methanol and/or water were observed and examined using CID experiments. The CID of all (CH₃OH)_n · H₂O · H⁺ clusters, where n ? 8, showed that water loss was statistically favored over methanol loss and that the preferred dissociation channel involved loss of water with methanol molecules. These results support a model employing a chain of hydrogen-bonded solvent molecules rather than one in which fused rings of ligands surround a central hydronium ion. However, CID of larger clusters, where n ? 9, showed that loss of one methanol was equal to or less than loss of water, reflecting a change in structure.     

Ionic dissociations of chlorosulfonic acid in microsolvated clusters: A density functional theory and ab initio MO study

Ionic dissociation of chlorosulfonic acid (HSO₃Cl) in the molecular clusters HSO₃Cl-(H₂O) _n (n = 1–4) and HSO₃Cl-NH₃-(H₂O) _n (n = 0–3) was investigated by density functional theory and ab initio molecular orbital theory. The equilibrium structures, binding energies, and thermodynamic properties, such as relative enthalpy and relative Gibbs free energy, and were calculated using the hybrid density functional (B3LYP) method and the second order M?ller-Plesset approximation (MP2) method with the 6-311++G** basis set. Chlorosulfonic acid was found to require a minimum of three water molecules for ionization to occur and at least one water molecule to protonate ammonia. The corresponding clusters with fewer water molecules were found to be strongly hydrogen-bonded. The related properties and acid strength of chlorosulfonic acid were discussed and compared to the acid strengths of perchloric acid and sulfuric acid in the context of clusters with ammonia and water. The relative stabilities of these clusters were also investigated. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 20273046), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation (Award No. TH-00-028) of California State University, Fullerton, and the Younger Teacher Foundation of Suzhou University (Grant No. Q31094040)     

Hydrogen‐Bond Cooperative Effects in Small Cyclic Water Clusters as Revealed by the Interacting Quantum Atoms Approach

The cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters (H₂O)_n (n=3–6) have been studied by using the partition of the electronic energy in accordance with the interacting quantum atoms (IQA) approach. The IQA energy splitting is complemented by a topological analysis of the electron density (ρ( r )) compliant with the quantum theory of atoms‐in‐molecules (QTAIM) and the calculation of electrostatic interactions by using one‐ and two‐electron integrals, thereby avoiding convergence issues inherent to a multipolar expansion. The results show that the cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters arise from a compromise between: 1) the deformation energy (i.e., the energy necessary to modify the electron density and the configuration of the nuclei of the isolated water molecules to those within the water clusters), and 2) the interaction energy (E_int) of these contorted molecules in (H₂O)_n. Whereas the magnitude of both deformation and interaction energies is enhanced as water molecules are added to the system, the augmentation of the latter becomes dominant when the size of the cluster is increased. In addition, the electrostatic, classic, and exchange components of E_int for a pair of water molecules in the cluster (H₂O)_n?1 become more attractive when a new H₂O unit is incorporated to generate the system (H₂O)_n with the last‐mentioned contribution being consistently the most important part of E_int throughout the hydrogen bonds under consideration. This is opposed to the traditional view, which regards hydrogen bonding in water as an electrostatically driven interaction. Overall, the trends of the delocalization indices, δ(Ω,Ω′), the QTAIM atomic charges, the topology of ρ( r ), and the IQA results altogether show how polarization, charge transfer, electrostatics, and covalency contribute to the cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters. It is our hope that the analysis presented in this paper could offer insight into the different intra‐ and intermolecular interactions present in hydrogen‐bonded systems.     

Far‐Infrared Spectra of Yttrium‐Doped Gold Clusters AunY (n=1–9)

The geometric, spectroscopic, and electronic properties of neutral yttrium‐doped gold clusters Au_nY (n=1–9) are studied by far‐infrared multiple photon dissociation (FIR‐MPD) spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. Comparison of the observed and calculated vibrational spectra allows the structures of the isomers present in the molecular beam to be determined. Most of the isomers for which the IR spectra agree best with experiment are calculated to be the energetically most stable ones. Attachment of xenon to the Au_nY cluster can cause changes in the IR spectra, which involve band shifts and band splittings. In some cases symmetry changes, as a result of the attachment of xenon atoms, were also observed. All the Au_nY clusters considered prefer a low spin state. In contrast to pure gold clusters, which exhibit exclusively planar lowest‐energy structures for small sizes, several of the studied species are three‐dimensional. This is particularly the case for Au₄Y and Au₉Y, while for some other sizes (n=5, 8) the 3D structures have an energy similar to that of their 2D counterparts. Several of the lowest‐energy structures are quasi‐2D, that is, slightly distorted from planar shapes. For all the studied species the Y atom prefers high coordination, which is different from other metal dopants in gold clusters.     

1,2,3-三氮杂苯－(水)3复合物多体相互作用

The interaction between 1,2,3-triazine and three water molecules was studied using density functional theory B3LYP method at 6-31-t＋＋G^＊＊ basis set. Various structures for 1,2,3-triazine-（water）n （n= 1, 2, 3） complex were investigated and the different lower energy structures were reported. Many-body analysis was also carded out to obtain relaxation energy and many-body interaction energy （two, three, and four-body）, and the most stable conformer has the basis set superposition error corrected interaction energy of -- 102.61 kJ/mol. The relaxation energy, two- and three-body interactions have significant contribution to the total interaction energy whereas four-body interaction was very small for 1,2,3-triazine-（water）3 complex.     

Interaction of Mo(CO)6 and its derivative fragments with the Cu(001) surface: Influence on the decomposition process

A theoretical study on the adsorption and decomposition of molybdenum carbonyl on the copper (001) surface is reported. The adsorption structures and energies of Mo(CO)_n molecules (n = 1 … 6) are computed systematically using density functional theory with Van der Waals corrections. By analyzing the energies of the various conformations, the main factors that determine the stable adsorption geometry are identified. Insight into the thermodynamics of decomposition is gained by calculating the reaction energy for dissociation of Mo(CO)_n into Mo(CO)_n?1 and CO. In the gas phase, this reaction is highly endothermic for all n. On the Cu surface, however, removal of the first CO group (n = 6) becomes strongly exothermic. The subsequent dissociation steps (n < 6), are endothermic even on the surface, but the reaction energies are much reduced. Dissociation is found energetically more favorable than desorption in all cases. The results clearly show that molybdenum carbonyl decomposition is strongly facilitated by the presence of the Cu surface. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

n-Butane,iso-Butane and 1-Butene Adsorption on Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids Studied with Molecular Beam Techniques

The interaction of molecules, especially hydrocarbons, at the gas/ionic liquid (IL) surface plays a crucial role in supported IL catalysis. The dynamics of this process is investigated by measuring the trapping probabilities of n-butane, iso-butane and 1-butene on a set of frozen 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ILs [C_nC₁Im]X, where n=4, 8 and X⁻=Cl⁻, Br⁻, [PF₆]⁻ and [Tf₂N]⁻. The decrease of the initial trapping probability with increasing surface temperature is used to determine the desorption energy of the hydrocarbons at the IL surfaces. It increases with increasing alkyl chain length n and decreasing anion size for the ILs studied. We attribute these effects to different degrees of alkyl chain surface enrichment, while interactions between the adsorbate and the anion do not play a significant role. The adsorption energy also depends on the adsorbing molecule: It decreases in the order n-butane>1-butene>iso-butane, which can be explained by different dispersion interactions.     

The effect of silicon doping on the geometrical structures,stability, and electronic and spectral properties of magnesium clusters: DFT study of SiMgn (n = 1-12) clusters

Using the density functional theory (DFT) method at the B3LYP /6−311G (D) level, we studied how silicon doping affects the geometrical structure, stability, and electronic and spectral properties of magnesium clusters. The stable isomers of SiMg _n (n = 1-12) clusters were calculated by searching numerous initial configurations using the CALYPSO program. The geometrical structure optimization shows that most stable SiMg _n (n = 3-12) clusters are three-dimensional. In addition, geometrical structure growth patterns show that some structures of SiMg _n clusters can be directly formed by replacing one Mg atom in the corresponding Mg _{n + 1} cluster with one silicon atom, such as SiMg₈ and Mg₉ clusters. The stability of SiMg _n clusters is analyzed by calculating the average binding energy, fragmentation energy, and second-order energy difference. The results show that SiMg _n clusters with n = 5 and 8 are more stable than others. MO contents analysis show that the Si 3p-orbitals and Mg 3s-orbital are mainly responsible for the stability of these two clusters. The results of the natural charge population (NCP) and natural electronic configure (NEC) analysis of the electronic properties reveal that the charges in SiMg_n (n = 1-12) clusters transfer from magnesium atoms to silicon frame, and electronic charge distributions are primarily governed by s- and p-orbital interactions. In addition, the Vertical ionization potential (VIP), vertical electron affinity (VEA), and chemical hardness of ground sates of SiMg _n (n = 1-12) clusters were studied in detail and compared with the experimental results. The conclusions show that the chemical hardness of most SiMg _n clusters are lower than that of pure Mg _{n + 1} (n = 1-12) clusters, except for n = 1 and 8. This indicates that the doping of silicon atom can always reduce the chemical hardness of pure magnesium clusters. Finally, the infrared and Raman spectral properties of SiMg₅ and SiMg₈ clusters were calculated and discussed in detail.     

Peptide free‐energy profile is strongly dependent on the force field: Comparison of C96 and AMBER95

The C96 and AMBER95 force fields were compared with small model peptides Ac‐(Ala)_n‐NMe (Ac = CH₃CO, NMe = NHCH₃, n=2 and 3) in vacuo and in TIP3P water by computing the free‐energy profiles using multicanonical molecular dynamics method. The C96 force field is a modified version of the AMBER95 force field, which was adjusted to reproduce the energy difference between extended β‐ and constrained α‐helical energies for the alanine tetrapeptide, obtained by the high level ab initio MO method. The slight modification resulted in a large difference in the free energy profiles. The C96 force field prefers relatively extended conformers, whereas the AMBER95 force field favors turn conformations. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 21: 748–762, 2000     

Dependence of collision‐induced dissociation energy on molecular degrees of freedom as a means to assess relative binding affinity in multivalent complexes

In collision‐induced dissociation mass spectrometry experiments, the collision energy required for dissociation linearly depends on the degrees of freedom in the precursor ion. The magnitude of the slope of this relationship previously has been shown to qualitatively correlate to the relative binding strength of a noncovalently bound, monovalent complex. The goal of the work presented here is to determine if a similar methodology can be applied for assessing relative binding strengths in multivalent species. We have tested the method on complexes formed from 18‐crown‐6 and a variety of protonated, primary alkylamines, [C_nH_2n+1NH₃]⁺ (n = 9, 12, 14, 16 and 18) and alkyldiamines, [H₃NC_nH_2nNH₃]²⁺ (n = 3, 5, 6, 9 and 12), and compared our results with dissociation energies calculated using density functional theory at the B3LYP/6‐31G* level. We found that the method correctly assessed the stronger crown ether/headgroup interaction in the two divalent species (1:1 and 2:1 complexes formed from the diaminoalkanes) compared with the weaker interaction in the monovalent species (1:1 complexes formed from mono‐aminoalkanes). However, the experimental method could not distinguish between the binding strengths of the two divalent complexes, perhaps because their calculated dissociation energies were quite similar. Our preliminary results suggest that this method could potentially be used for a quick and simple analysis of binding strengths in multivalent species if the binding strengths of the species are significantly different from one another. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.