Prompt and delayed photoejection of hydrated electrons in the UV photolysis of aqueous solutions of copper(I) complexes

The ejection of hydrated electrons from 266-nm laser-photoexcited solutions containing Cu(NH₃)⁺₃, CuCl²⁻₃, or CuBr²⁻₃ occurs through two pathways on the nanosecond time scale: a prompt ejection (ττ>laser pulsewidth) which follows a first-order rate law. This behavior is consistent with electron ejection from two excited states: the primary CTTS state, and longer-lived triplet species consisting of an exciplex and its precursor. The quantum yields for both prompt and delayed ejection are quite high, in the 0.15–0.4 range.     

Kinetics and mechanism of the reaction between hypochlorous acid and tetrathionate ion

The reaction has been studied spectrophotometrically monitoring the absorbance in the 240–400 nm wavelength range. The spectra of the reactants, intermediates, and products in this system are overlapping; thus special programs [ 1 , 2 ] have been used (and tested) to unravel the kinetics and mechanism of the reaction. The stoichiometry of the reaction in excess hypochlorous acid is S₄O₆²⁻ + 7HOCl + 3H₂O → 4SO₄²⁻ + 7Cl⁻ + 13H⁺. Various experiments are presented to show that—in excess tetrathionate—the reaction produces a light‐absorbing intermediate identified as S₂O₃Cl⁻. The intermediate slowly hydrolyzes into sulfur and sulfate and it yields pentathionate in excess tetrathionate. The rate‐determining steps and their rate constants are The further oxidation of S₂O₄²⁻ and SO₃²⁻ by HOCl to sulfate are fast processes. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 32: 395–402, 2000     

Geometry optimization of metal complexes using natural internal coordinates: Representation of skeletal degrees of freedom

The geometry optimization using natural internal coordinates was applied for transition metal complexes. The original definitions were extended here for the skeletal degrees of freedom which are related to the translational and rotational displacements of the ηⁿ-bonded ligands. We suggest definitions for skeletal coordinates of ηⁿ-bonded small unsaturated rings and chains. The performance of geometry optimizations using the suggested coordinates were tested on various conformers of 14 complexes. Consideration was given to alternative representations of the skeletal internal coordinates, and the performance of optimization is compared. Using the skeletal internal coordinates presented here, most transition metal complexes were optimized between 10 and 20 geometry optimization cycles in spite of the usually poor starting geometry and crude approximation for the Hessian. We also optimized the geometry of some complexes in Cartesian coordinates using the Hessian from a parametrized redundant force field. We found that it took between two and three times as many iterations to reach convergence in Cartesian coordinates than using natural internal coordinates. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Frequency‐Response Evidence for Parallel Diffusion Processes in the Bimodal Micropore System of an Activated Carbon

The rates of mass transport of gases such as propane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia have been studied in an activated carbon sorbent. The frequency‐response (FR) method was used to measure these rates. Small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) and nitrogen‐adsorption isotherm at 77 K showed that the activated carbon contains small micropores with diameters around 0.64 and 0.92 nm, respectively. The FR‐rate spectra distinguished two parallel diffusion processes with different time constants, suggesting that the smaller and the larger micropores were not interconnected.     

Poly(vinylferrocenium) coated disposable pencil graphite electrode for DNA hybridization

Poly(vinylferrocenium) (PVF⁺) modified electrode was developed in this study for the electrochemical sensing of DNA based on the oxidation signals of polymer, adenine and guanine. Experimental parameters, such as; polymeric film thickness, DNA immobilization time and DNA concentration were examined in order to obtain more sensitive and selective electrochemical signals. After optimization studies, DNA hybridization was investigated.     

Method validation for the simultaneous determination of fecal sterols in surface waters by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Besides microbiological methods, fecal pollution of surface waters is estimated by gas chromatographic (GC) determination of sterols present in human and animal sewage effluents. The most frequently used biomarkers for the evaluation of contamination levels include coprostanol, cholesterol, dihydrocholesterol, stigmasterol, beta-sitosterol, and stigmastanol. Although several GC techniques are used to measure these compounds in aquatic systems, the analytical performance of GC-mass spectrometric (MS) determination of these sterols has not been systematically characterized. Therefore, the aim of this work is to validate a simple and rapid GC-MS method for the simultaneous analysis of six sterols, considering all parameters and requirements defined by Good Laboratory Practice. Following liquid-liquid extraction of spiked surface water samples, the extracts are silylated and analyzed by GC-MS. The method is evaluated for linearity and limits of detection and quantitation, as well as for precision, extraction efficiency, and stability. The assay is linear up to 160 ng; the limits of detection and quantitation are 5-10 ng and 20 ng, respectively. The within- and between-day precision ranged from 1% to 9% and 1% to 16%, respectively. The extraction efficiency was 65-80%. The stability studies indicate that the sterols in surface water samples begin to degrade after 24 h of refrigerated storage. However, three freeze/thaw cycles could be performed without their decomposition. The method is applied to the analysis of surface water and wastewater samples. The technical advantages make this GC-MS analysis suitable for routine environmental monitoring of fecal pollution in aquatic systems.     

High-accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry. II. Minor improvements to the protocol and a vital simplification

The recently developed high-accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry method for theoretical thermochemistry, which is intimately related to other high-precision protocols such as the Weizmann-3 and focal-point approaches, is revisited. Some minor improvements in theoretical rigor are introduced which do not lead to any significant additional computational overhead, but are shown to have a negligible overall effect on the accuracy. In addition, the method is extended to completely treat electron correlation effects up to pentuple excitations. The use of an approximate treatment of quadruple and pentuple excitations is suggested; the former as a pragmatic approximation for standard cases and the latter when extremely high accuracy is required. For a test suite of molecules that have rather precisely known enthalpies of formation {as taken from the active thermochemical tables of Ruscic and co-workers [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, edited by M. Parashar (Springer, Berlin, 2002), Vol. 2536, pp. 25-38; J. Phys. Chem. A 108, 9979 (2004)]}, the largest deviations between theory and experiment are 0.52, -0.70, and 0.51 kJ mol(-1) for the latter three methods, respectively. Some perspective is provided on this level of accuracy, and sources of remaining systematic deficiencies in the approaches are discussed.     

Adiabatic approximations to internal rotation

A number of subtle and confusing issues are addressed concerning large amplitude motion (LAM) coordinates (chi) for internal molecular motions, using the methyl rotation in acetaldehyde (CH(3)CHO) as a model problem. If the LAM coordinate is chosen to be one of the H-C-C-O dihedral angles rho(1), rho(2), or rho(3), it lacks the required 2pi3 periodicity, and its use is thus undesirable. An excellent local internal coordinate for this model problem is tau(3)=13(rho(1)+rho(2)+rho(3)-2pi). A similarly good but nonlocal coordinate for the adiabatic approximation of internal rotation is provided by the intrinsic reaction coordinate s. Comparison of the mass-independent V(0)(tau(3)) and the mass-dependent V(0)(s) internal rotation curves shows that the two are virtually identical for the parent isotopolog of acetaldehyde. A unified internal coordinate projection scheme for determining complementary vibrational frequencies and subsequently V(ZPVE)(chi) along a path for LAM has been formulated, where V(ZPVE)(chi) is the zero-point vibrational energy correction to the internal rotation curve. In addition to its simplicity, the projection scheme developed for a distinguished reaction path generated by constrained optimizations is appealing because the vibrational frequencies along the LAM path are invariant to chemically meaningful choices of the internal coordinates for the complementary modes.     

Ellipsometry of silica nanoparticulate Langmuir-Blodgett films for the verification of the validity of effective medium approximations

The validity of various effective medium approximations (EMAs) (Bruggeman, Maxwell-Garnett) was studied for nanostructured systems, where the scale of inhomogeneities is comparable to the wavelength. Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) layers of St?ber silica nanospheres of diameters between 40 and 129 nm are excellent model structures for the experimental verification of the validity of the EMA methods in spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) evaluation. Nanostructured mono- and multilayered silica films were investigated by SE and reflectance spectroscopy. The effective refractive index and film thickness were determined from the results of multiparameter fitting of SE spectra in the 300-759 nm wavelength region. The distribution of the effective refractive index in the particulate films was calculated assuming an ideal close-packed arrangement of particles. The average deviation from such a structure was deduced from the corrected model by introducing a "fill factor". In the EMA approximation, the spherical shape of the silica particle determines the optical behavior, rather than the "depth distribution" of silica or porosity. Therefore, the shape of particles has a dominant effect on the optical properties of nanoparticulate LB films.