Chemical imaging of terrace-based active sites on gold

Scanning tunneling microscopy data of a mixed monolayer comprised of a 40:60 ratio of H8Si8O12 and C6H13-H7Si8O12 clusters on gold are presented. The images display a composite monolayer surface with well-defined domain regions of the individual components. Holes present at face-centered cubic (fcc) sites of the starting Au/H7Si8O12 adsorbate layer indicate the location of active sites for impinging C6H13-H7Si8O12 clusters. Adsorption of a C6H13-H7Si8O12 cluster likely yields a mobile hydrogen atom available to recombine with and desorb an adjacent H8Si8O12 cluster. Hydrogen atom diffusion along substrate [121] directions is the proposed pattern formation mechanism of the mixed monolayer. Imaging of the spherosiloxane cluster domains identifies a novel terrace-based active site located in the fcc regions of the Au(111) 23 x square root3 surface reconstruction.     

Clever and efficient method for searching optimal geometries of lennard-jones clusters

An unbiased algorithm for determining global minima of Lennard-Jones (LJ) clusters is proposed in the present study. In the algorithm, a global minimum is searched by using two operators: one modifies a cluster configuration by moving atoms to the most stable positions on the surface of a cluster and the other gives a perturbation on a cluster configuration by moving atoms near the center of mass of a cluster. The moved atoms are selected by employing contribution of the atoms to the potential energy of a cluster. It was possible to find new global minima for LJ506, LJ521, LJ536, LJ537, LJ538, and LJ541 together with putative global minima of LJ clusters of 10-561 atoms reported in the literature. This indicates that the present method is clever and efficient for cluster geometry optimization.     

Monolayer structure of tetracene on Cu (100) surface: parallel geometry

The geometrical arrangement of tetracene on Cu (100) surface at monolayer coverage is studied by using scanning tunneling microscopy measurement and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Tetracene molecule is found to be oriented with its molecular plane parallel to the substrate surface, and no perpendicular geometry is observed at this coverage. The molecule is aligned either in the [011] or [011] direction due to the fourfold symmetry of the Cu (100) surface. DFT calculations show that the molecule with the "flat-lying" mode has larger adsorption energy than that with the "upright standing" mode, indicating that the former is the more stable structure. With the flat-lying geometry, the carbon atoms prefer to be placed between surface Cu atoms. The molecular center prefers to be located at the bridge site between two nearest surface Cu atoms.     

Studies of iridium nanoparticles using density functional theory calculations

The energetics and the electronic and magnetic properties of iridium nanoparticles in the range of 2-64 atoms were investigated using density functional theory calculations. A variety of different geometric configurations were studied, including planar, three-dimensional, nanowire, and single-walled nanotube. The binding energy per atom increases with size and dimensionality from 2.53 eV/atom for the iridium dimer to 6.09 eV/atom for the 64-atom cluster. The most stable geometry is planar until four atoms are reached and three-dimensional thereafter. The simple cubic structure is the most stable geometric building block until a strikingly large 48-atom cluster, when the most stable geometry transitions to face-centered cubic, as found in the bulk metal. The strong preference for cubic structure among small clusters demonstrates their rigidity. This result indicates that iridium nanoparticles intrinsically do not favor the coalescence process. Nanowires formed from linear atomic chains of up to 4-atom rings were studied, and the wires formed from 4-atom rings were extremely stable. Single-walled nanotubes were also studied. These nanotubes were formed by stacking 5- and 6-atom rings to form a tube. The ring stacking with each atom directly above the previous atom is more stable than if the alternate rings are rotated.     

Directed assembly of copolymer materials on patterned substrates: Balance of simple symmetries in complex structures

The self-assembly of a lamella-forming blend of a diblock copolymer and its respective homopolymers on periodically patterned substrates is investigated by a concerted experimental and theoretical approach. The substrate pattern consists of square arrays of spots that preferentially attract one component of the blend. The mismatch between the lamellar equilibrium morphology of the copolymer material and the substrate pattern results in the formation of a bicontinuous morphology. At the substrate, a quadratically perforated lamella (QPL) assembles in perfect registry with the substrate pattern. From this, QPL necks emanate and reach the top surface of the film. The detailed structure of these cylindrical nanochannels is analyzed using Voronoi tessellation, orientation correlation functions, and the structure factor of the neck positions on the top surface. The surface morphology is dictated by the antagonism of the square symmetry of the substrate pattern and the tendency of the necks to locally pack in a hexagonal arrangement. The analogy and differences to a system of adsorbed monolayer on corrugated substrates is explored by comparing the arrangement of the necks on the film's top surface with the structure of a soft disk model on a quadratically corrugated substrate. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2589–2604, 2006     

Structural transitions in the 309-atom magic number Lennard-Jones cluster

The thermal behavior of the 309-atom Lennard-Jones cluster, whose structure is a complete Mackay icosahedron, has been studied by parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations. Surprisingly for a magic number cluster, the heat capacity shows a very pronounced peak before melting, which is attributed to several coincident structural transformation processes. The main transformation is somewhat akin to surface roughening and involves a cooperative condensation of vacancies and adatoms that leads to the formation of pits and islands one or two layers thick on the Mackay icosahedron. The second transition in order of importance involves a whole scale transformation of the cluster structure and leads to a diverse set of twinned structures that are assemblies of face-centered-cubic tetrahedra with six atoms along their edges, i.e., one atom more than the edges of the 20 tetrahedra that make up the 309-atom Mackay icosahedron. A surface reconstruction of the icosahedron from a Mackay to an anti-Mackay overlayer is also observed, but with a lower probability.     

Combining smart darting with parallel tempering using Eckart space: application to Lennard-Jones clusters

The smart-darting algorithm is a Monte Carlo based simulation method used to overcome quasiergodicity problems associated with disconnected regions of configurations space separated by high energy barriers. As originally implemented, the smart-darting method works well for clusters at low temperatures with the angular momentum restricted to zero and where there are no transitions to permutational isomers. If the rotational motion of the clusters is unrestricted or if permutational isomerization becomes important, the acceptance probability of darting moves in the original implementation of the method becomes vanishingly small. In this work the smart-darting algorithm is combined with the parallel tempering method in a manner where both rotational motion and permutational isomerization events are important. To enable the combination of parallel tempering with smart darting so that the smart-darting moves have a reasonable acceptance probability, the original algorithm is modified by using a restricted space for the smart-darting moves. The restricted space uses a body-fixed coordinate system first introduced by Eckart, and moves in this Eckart space are coupled with local moves in the full 3N-dimensional space. The modified smart-darting method is applied to the calculation of the heat capacity of a seven-atom Lennard-Jones cluster. The smart-darting moves yield significant improvement in the statistical fluctuations of the calculated heat capacity in the region of temperatures where the system isomerizes. When the modified smart-darting algorithm is combined with parallel tempering, the statistical fluctuations of the heat capacity of a seven-atom Lennard-Jones cluster using the combined method are smaller than parallel tempering when used alone.     

Microphase separation in multiblock copolymer melts: Nonconventional morphologies and two-length-scale switching

The phase behavior of AfmN(BN2AN2)B(1-fmN) multiblock copolymer melts is studied within the weak segregation theory. The interplay between ordering on different length scales is shown to cause dramatic changes both in the ordered phase symmetry and periodicity upon small variation of the architectural parameters of the macromolecules. Phase diagrams are presented in the (f,chiN) plane (chi is the Flory-Huggins parameter) for various values of the architecture parameters n and m. Near the critical surface, i.e., for (f-0.5)2<1, such nonconventional cubic phases as the face-centered cubic (FCC), simple cubic (SC), (double) gyroid, and the so-called BCC(2) (single gyroid) are found to be stable. The lamellar morphology is shown to be replaced by BCC2, FCC, or SC (depending on the structural parameters) as the most stable low-temperature phase.     

On the structure of bilayer condensed phases confined between crystalline walls of triangular symmetry

Grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulation method is used to study the structure of Lennard-Jones fluids confined between the parallel walls, formed by the (111) planes of the face centered cubic crystal. Thin slit pores with a width allowing for the formation of only two atomic layers are considered. It is shown that the structure of confined solidlike phases is very sensitive to the pore width, the misfit between the size of adsorbate atoms and the size of surface lattice, as well as the corrugation of the surface potential. In particular, when the misfit between the adsorbate atoms and the surface lattice is very small, even a weakly corrugated surface potential highly stabilizes solidlike phases of triangular symmetry. On the other hand, in the case of large misfit the packing effects become a dominating factor and lead to the appearance of solidlike phases of different structures and symmetries.     

Simulation of ordered packed beds in chromatography

A computer simulation of chromatographic dispersion in an ordered packed bed of spheres is conducted utilizing a detailed fluid flow profile provided by the Lattice Boltzmann technique. The ordered configurations of simple cubic, body-centered cubic, and face-centered cubic are employed in these simulations. It is found that zone broadening is less for the fcc structure than the sc and bcc structures and less than a random packed bed analyzed in a previous study in the low flow velocity region used for experimental chromatography. The factors which contribute to the performance of the ordered pack beds are analyzed in detail and found to be dependent both on the nearest surface to surface distance and on the distribution of velocities found in the various packing geometries. The pressure drops of the four configurations are compared and contrasted with the pressure drop from monolithic columns.     

Structural variation of silver clusters from Ag13 to Ag160

The structures of silver clusters from Ag(121) to Ag(160) were optimized with a modified dynamic lattice searching (DLS) method, named as DLS with constructed core (DLSc). The interaction among silver atoms is modeled by the Gupta potential. Structural characteristic of silver clusters with the growth of cluster size is investigated with the newly optimized structures and our previous results from Ag(13) to Ag(120). A set of amorphous structures was obtained in the size range of 13-48, together with several ordered structures. The putative stable motif is an icosahedron from Ag(49) to Ag(61) and then changes to a decahedron in the size range of 62-160. Some of the results are consistent with experiments. Furthermore, it was also found that, for clusters with decahedral motif, the stable structure is a result of the competition among the different Marks decahedral motifs. On the other hand, different from the Lennard-Jones cluster, there are some silver clusters with the face-centered cubic (fcc) motif in the size range of 13-160. But the fcc motif can only be obtained for some specific sizes.     

Binding energy of large icosahedral and cuboctahedral Lennard-Jones clusters

It is widely believed that the lowest energy configurations for small rare gas clusters have icosahedral symmetry. This contrasts with the bulk crystal structures which have cuboctahedral fcc symmetry. It is of interest to understand the transition between this finite and bulk behavior. To model this transition in rare gas clusters we have undertaken optimization studies within the Lennard-Jones pair potential model. Using a combination of Monte Carlo and Partan Search optimization methods, the lowest energy relaxed structures of Lennard-Jones clusters having icosahedral and cuboctahedral symmetry were found. Studies were performed for complete shell clusters ranging in size from one shell having 13 atoms to 14 shells having 10,179 atoms. It was found that the icosahedral structures are lower in energy than the cuboctahedral structures for cluster sizes having 13 shells or fewer. Additional studies were performed using the more accurate Aziz-Chen [HFD-C] pair potential parameterized for argon. The conclusions appear to be relatively insensitive to the form of the potential.     

氢气在A和X型沸石上超临界吸附的格子密度函数模型

采用基于三维Ono-Kondo方程的格子密度函数理论(LDFT)模型模拟了氢气在A和X型微孔沸石上的超临界吸附等温线. 根据沸石孔的尺寸和形状, LDFT模型将氢分子在孔中的吸附位分布近似为简单立方、面心立方和体心立方的团簇结构. 模拟结果表明, LDFT模型可有效地用于描述氢气在A和X型沸石上的单层或多层超临界吸附行为. 模拟所得的吸附等温线与实验测定结果吻合. 特别是, LDFT模型中的氢-沸石作用势能参数的准确性得到了Lennard-Jones(12-6)势能方法的有效验证. 因此, LDFT模型被用于预测了更宽温度和压力范围内氢气在X沸石上的超临界吸附.     

Structures and magnetic properties of Ni<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Subscript> (<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> = 36-40) clusters from first-principles calculations

A genetic algorithm (GA) coupled with a tight-binding (TB) interatomic potential is used to search for the low-energy structures of medium-sized Ni _n (n = 36-40) clusters. Structural candidates obtained from our GA search are further optimized with first-principles calculations. The medium-sized nickel clusters ranging from 36 to 40 atoms are found to favor the double-icosahedron-based structures with a Ni₇ core (a pentagonal bipyramidal structure) except Ni₃₈ cluster. The lowest-energy structure of Ni₃₈ can be considered to be a magic cluster, which is a typical face-centered cubic structure with large stability and magnetic moment.     

单一稀土镧在不同基底上的电沉积及其性能的研究

研究在低温熔融盐体系中于不同基底上电沉积单一稀土金属镧（La）。经X-射线能谱仪测定,在镍片基底上沉积的La的质量分数为100％,铜片基底上沉积的La质量分数为72．84％;在镍铁合金灯丝上沉积得到La-Ni合金薄膜,其中La的质量分数为50．02％,Ni的质量分数为2．48％。经扫描电子显微镜观察,所得的沉积膜为均匀、光滑、致密的黑色沉积薄膜。经X-射线衍射仪分析,镧在不同基底上沉积所得的沉积膜为不同晶型,以镍片为基底得到的单质镧为α-六方晶型;以铜片为基底得到的单质镧为面心立方晶;均与基底晶型相匹配。在镍铁合金灯丝上电沉积所得的La-Ni合金薄膜致密均匀,在无水乙醇中久浸而不脱落,并呈现强磁性。     

Utilization of ‘pseudo-lattice symmetry’ in cluster calculations

Cluster calculations which model chemisorption on a surface are often composed of substrate atoms arranged in a periodic manner. This pseudo-lattice symmetry of a cluster is used to reduce the number of 2-electron integrals computed in a SCF calculation by evaluating only unique integrals identified by lattice displacement vectors. The method, without using any explicit symmetry, is shown to be competitive with calculations which utilize point group symmetry. It is also demonstrated that the pseudo-lattice method markedly reduces the number of 2-electron integrals in multi-layer clusters which have little or no symmetry.     

Toward the growth of an aligned single-layer MoS2 film

Molybdenum disulfide (molybdenite) monolayer islands and flakes have been grown on a copper surface at comparatively low temperature and mild conditions through sulfur loading of the substrate using thiophenol (benzenethiol) followed by the evaporation of Mo atoms and annealing. The MoS(2) islands show a regular Moire? pattern in scanning tunneling microscopy, attesting to their atomic ordering and high quality. They are all aligned with the substrate high-symmetry directions providing for rotational-domain-free monolayer growth.     

Clusters as crystal fragments of silicon bulk

Silicon clusters of 13 to 43 atoms were studied with the semi-empirical method SINDO1. Crystalline structures of face-centered cubic (fcc), hexagonal close packed (hcp) and diamond type and noncrystalline structures of icosahedral type were compared. Noncrystalline structures are most stable for clusters up to 13 atoms. Clusters with 19 and more atoms of the fcc structure are preferable to the less dense diamond structure. With more than 35 Si atoms, the diamond structure is favored over the hcp structure. The binding energy of fcc and hcp structures decreases and that of the diamond structure increases with increasing cluster size. A similar trend is observed for the HOMO-LUMO energy gap which is taken as a measure of the band gap.     

On the convergence of parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations of LJ38

The convergence of parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations of the 38-atom Lennard-Jones cluster starting from the Oh global minimum and from the C(5v) second-lowest-energy minimum is investigated. It is found that achieving convergence is appreciably more difficult, particularly at temperatures in the vicinity of the Oh --> C(5v) transformation when starting from the C(5v) structure. A strategy combining the Tsallis generalized ensemble and the parallel tempering algorithm is implemented and used to improve the convergence of the simulations in the vicinity of the Oh --> C(5v) transformation.     

Exploring the electronic structure of elemental lithium: from small molecules to nanoclusters, bulk metal, and surfaces

Clusters of lithium atoms ranging in size from Li4 to Li40 and bulk metallic solids, including surfaces, are investigated through first principles electronic structure calculations, which are based upon density functional theory and the electron localization function (ELF). It is found that large lithium ppi-type contributions in the electronic wavefunction cause the electrons to localize in interstitial regions, which leads to multicenter bonding for both the clusters and the solids, including their surfaces. For the smaller clusters these stabilizing ppi interactions also lead to short Li-Li interatomic distances, which in conjunction with the longer bonds induces "distance alternation" in the range from 2.45 A to 3.15 A. This consequence of the additional ppi interactions is absent in simple solids due to symmetry. The electronic structure of the clusters is topologically insensitive to deformations that do not affect their general shape, but changes significantly upon isomerization. The ramifications upon dynamic properties is that the clusters are quasi-rigid at low temperatures and retain their shape though the distance alternation pattern is suppressed. The picture which emerges for bonding in the bulk solid is that the metallic state arises from the presence of a large number of partially occupied multicenter bonds. For nanoscale clusters only the surface of these clusters exhibits strong localization, whereas their interiors display localization properties similar to the bulk metallic solid. On the other hand, localized states similar to those of the clusters ("dangling bonds") are found on the (001) surface of body-centered cubic (bcc) and face-centered cubic (fcc) lithium solids.