Kinetic studies of CO2dissociation on supported Ni catalysts

Summary In order to investigate the kinetics of CO₂dissociation on supported nickel catalysts, a novel technique, which can give the surface reaction rate constants with no information on the number of active sites, was developed. It was revealed that CO₂dissociation was more enhanced on TiO₂support than on other metal oxide ones. The activity pattern and activation energies were in good agreement with those obtained by a conventional pulse technique using the number of active sites, suggesting the validity of the present technique for investigating the kinetics of the surface reaction.</o:p>     

Characterization of amorphous hydrogenated carbon formed by low-pressure inductively coupled plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using multiple low-inductance antenna units

Three-dimensional plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) has been demonstrated using a new type high-density volumetric plasma source with multiple low-inductance antenna system. The plasma density in the volume of phi 200 mm x 100 mm is 5.1 x 10(10) cm(-3) within +/-5% in the lateral directions and 5.2 x 10(10)cm(-3) within +/-10% in the axial direction for argon plasma under the pressure of 0.1 Pa and the total power as low as 400 W. The uniformity of the thickness and refractive index is within +/-3.5% and +/-1%, respectively, for the a-C:H films deposited on the substrates placed on the six side walls, the top of the phi 60 mm x 80 mm hexagonal substrate holder in the pure toluene plasma under the pressure is as low as 0.04 Pa, and the total power is as low as 300 W. It is also found that precisely controlled ion bombardment by pulse biasing led to the explicit observation in Raman and IR spectra of the transition from polymer-like structure to diamond-like structure accompanied by dehydrogenation due to ion bombardment. Moreover, it is also concluded that the pulse biasing technique is effective for stress reduction without a significant degradation of hardness. The stress of 0.6 GPa and the hardness of 15 GPa have been obtained for 2.0 microm thick films deposited with the optimized deposition conditions. The films are durable for the tribology test with a high load of 20 N up to more than 20,000 cycles, showing the specific wear rate and the friction coefficient were 1.2 x 10(-7) mm3/Nm and 0.04, respectively.     

Reductive coupling of N-methoxycarbonyl lactams with benzophenone and 9-fluorenone by low-valent titanium

The reductive coupling of N-methoxycarbonyl lactams with benzophenone by Zn-TiCl₄ in THF gave cross-coupled products as cyclic α-diphenylidene-N-methoxycarbonylamines and ring-opening α,α-diphenyl-α-hydroxy-ω-(N-methoxycarbonyl)amino ketones selectively depending on the reduction conditions. The reductive coupling of N-methoxycarbonyl lactams with 9-fluorenone by Zn-TiCl₄ gave cyclic α-(9H-fluoren-9-ylidene)-N-methoxycarbonylamines preferentially irrespective to the conditions.     

Relativistic correlating basis sets for 57La and 89Ac

Developed and reported are compact yet efficient correlating basis sets for the ₅₇La and ₈₉Ac atoms, missing in the literature. Good performance of these correlating sets is exemplified in molecular applications to diatomic oxides and fluorides. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2010     

Quantifying the electronic effect of substituted phosphine ligands via molecular electrostatic potential

Values of the molecular electrostatic potential minimum (V(min)) corresponding to the lone pair region of several substituted phosphine ligands (PR(3)) have been determined at the DFT level. The V(min) value is proposed as a quantitative measure of the electronic effect of the PR(3) ligands. Good linear correlation between V(min) and Tolman electronic parameter of PR(3) has been obtained. V(min) is also proportional to the pK(a) values of the conjugate acids of PR(3), viz., [PR(3)H](+). Further, the DeltaE values of the reaction Ni(CO)(3) + PR(3) --> Ni(CO)(3)PR(3) and ScH(3) + PR(3) --> ScH(3)PR(3) are also linearly proportional to the V(min) values. However, if there is a strong metal to phosphorus pi-back-bonding, the DeltaE and V(min) do not fit to a line. It is also found that the standard reduction potential as well as the enthalpy change corresponding to the electrochemical couple eta-Cp(CO)(PR(3))(COMe)Fe(+)/eta-Cp(CO)(PR(3))(COMe)Fe(0) is linearly proportional to the V(min) values of PR(3). These correlations suggest that V(min) is a quantitative measure of the sigma-donating ability of the phosphine. It is hoped that, in phosphine-metal coordination chemistry, the V(min) based electronic parameter could be more advantageous than nu-CO and pK(a) based electronic parameters as it solely represents the inherent electronic property of the ligand.     

Accurate calculation of aromaticity of benzene and antiaromaticity of cyclobutadiene: new homodesmotic reactions

Newly designed homodesmotic reactions based on radical systems predict an absolute aromaticity of 29.13 kcal/mol for benzene and an absolute antiaromaticity of 40.28 kcal/mol for cyclobutadiene at the MP4(SDQ)/6-31G(d,p) level.     

Density-fluctuation-induced swelling of polymer thin films in carbon dioxide

We report an anomalous swelling of polymer thin films in carbon dioxide (CO(2)) which is associated (in both locus and form) with the density fluctuation ridge that forms along the extension of the coexistence curve of gas and liquid in the P-T phase diagram. Neutron reflectivity results showed that CO(2) could be sorbed to a large extent ( approximately 60%) in thin polymer films even when the bulk miscibility of the polymer with CO(2) is very poor. The anomalous swelling is found to scale with the polymer radius of gyration (R(g)) and extends to a distance approximately 10 R(g).     

Rashba spin-orbit coupling probed by the weak antilocalization analysis in InAlAs/InGaAs/InAlAs quantum wells as a function of quantum well asymmetry

We have investigated the values of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling constant alpha in In(0.52)Al(0.48)As/In(0.53)Ga(0.47)As/In(0.52)Al(0.48)As quantum wells using the weak antilocalization (WAL) analysis as a function of the structural inversion asymmetry (SIA) of the quantum wells. We have found that the deduced alpha values have a strong correlation with the degree of SIA of the quantum wells as predicted theoretically. The good agreement between the theoretical and experimental values of alpha suggests that our WAL approach for deducing alpha values provides a useful tool in designing future spintronics devices that utilize the Rashba spin-orbit coupling.     

Spin-filter device based on the Rashba effect using a nonmagnetic resonant tunneling diode

We propose an electronic spin-filter device that uses a nonmagnetic triple barrier resonant tunneling diode (TB-RTD). This device combines the spin-split resonant tunneling levels induced by the Rashba spin-orbit interaction and the spin blockade phenomena between two regions separated by the middle barrier in the TB-RTD. Detailed calculations using the InAlAs/InGaAs material system reveal that a splitting of a peak should be observed in the I-V curve of this device as a result of the spin-filtering effect. The filtering efficiency exceeds 99.9% at the peak positions in the I-V curve.