Phase behavior and fluid-solid surface tension of argon in slit pores and carbon nanotubes

Phase behaviors of argon in several types of cylindrical and slit pores are examined by grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulations. Condensation processes in single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes along with those in hard-wall tubes are compared. Effects of the pore size on pressure-tensor components, the fluid-wall surface tension, and the adsorption are also compared for the different fluid-pore interactions. The chemical potential at which the fluid begins to condense in the single-walled nanotube is greater than that in the multi-walled nanotube by an amount nearly equal to the difference in the potential-well depth of the fluid-pore interaction, and the adsorption isotherms overlap each other almost completely for narrow pores and partially for wider pores. Similar analyses are performed for slit pores of two different hydrocarbon models.     

First-principles study of palladium atom adsorption on the boron- or nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes

We have performed first-principles calculation to investigate the adsorption of a single palladium atom on the surface of the pristine and boron- or nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The results show that for the adsorption of a single palladium atom on the pristine CNT surface, the most stable site is Bridge1 site above the axial carbon–carbon bond. Either boron- or nitrogen-doped CNTs can assist palladium surface adsorption, but the detailed mechanisms are different. The enhanced palladium adsorption on boron-doped CNT is attributed to the palladium d orbital strongly hybridized with both boron p orbital and carbon p orbital. The enhancement in palladium adsorption on nitrogen-doped CNT results from activating the nitrogen-neighboring carbon atoms due to the large electron affinity of nitrogen. Furthermore, the axial bond is preferred over the zigzag bond for a palladium atom adsorbed on the surface of all three types of CNTs. The most energetically favorable site for a palladium atom adsorbed on three types of CNTs is above the axial boron–carbon bond in boron-doped CNT. The enhancement in palladium adsorption is more significant for the boron-doped CNT than it is for nitrogen-doped CNT with a similar configuration. So we conclude that accordingly, the preferred adsorption site is determined by the competition between the electron affinity of doped and adsorbed atoms and preferred degree of the axial bond over the zigzag bond.     

In situ FTIR study of oxygen adsorption on nanostructured RuO2 thin-film electrode

In situ Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to study interactions of nanostructured ruthenium oxide (RuO₂) thin-film sensing electrode with O₂ at room temperature. RuO₂ nanostructures were pretreated at 1,000 °C for 1 h in order to obtain good crystallinity of amorphous RuO₂ nanoparticles. Morphology and properties of nanostructured RuO₂ were characterized by X-ray diffraction, thermo-gravimetric/differential thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and FTIR. It was shown that pretreated RuO₂ is quite active for O₂ ⁻, O₂ ²⁻, and O²⁻ adsorption with clear 722 cm⁻¹ band for superoxide ions (O₂ ⁻) adsorption for the different oxygen concentrations. The results of in situ FTIR measurements revealed that the active sites for oxygen adsorption are not limited to the triple boundaries, but extended to surfaces of RuO₂ electrodes. Fundamental vibration frequencies of ruthenium–oxygen bond at a temperature of 23 °C as well as region above fundamental frequencies for the nanostructured RuO₂ were identified.     

第一性原理研究氧空位对Ag在MgO(001)面吸附的影响

采用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理研究方法,应用Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP),计算了氧空位对Ag原子在MgO(001)面吸附的影响．通过成键过程中电荷密度的变化以及电荷转移的讨论,从原子尺度上分析了MgO(001)面空位点Fs和Fs+对其吸附、聚集与成核属性的影响以及吸附的能量属性.结果表明,相对清洁的MgO表面而言,Ag原子吸附在O空位时,能够更牢固地与MgO表面结合,并吸引更多的Ag原子聚集在一起,形成一个个独立的Ag原子岛.     

ICP-AES法研究六钛酸钾晶须对Cu(Ⅱ),Pb(Ⅱ),Cd(Ⅱ)的吸附性能

以电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法(ICP-AES)为检测手段,研究了新型吸附剂六钛酸钾晶须对环境样品中Cu(Ⅱ),Pb(Ⅱ),CA(Ⅱ)的分离/富集行为以及解脱的主要因素,并考察了共存离子的干扰影响.在pH值为5.0,振荡时间为5 min,静置时间为30 min时,吸附率可达到95%以上.以3 mol·L-1HNO3作为解脱剂,沸水浴加热40 min,振荡5 win.静置40 win,可将吸附在六钛酸钾晶须上的Cu(Ⅱ),Pb(Ⅱ),Cd(Ⅱ)定量洗脱.测定Cu(Ⅱ),Pb(Ⅱ),Cd(Ⅱ)的检出险分别为0.007 1,0.006 8,0.007 1 μg·mL-1,相对标准偏差(RSD)为0.63%,0.61%,0.50%.在优化的实验条件下,将其用于菊花和琵琶叶中Cu(Ⅱ),Pb(Ⅱ),Cd(Ⅱ)含量的测定,加标回收率在900A～102.9%之间.     

Ab initio study of the chemical states of water on Cr2O3(0 0 0 1): From the isolated molecule to saturation coverage

The reactivity of the (0 0 0 1)-Cr–Cr₂O₃ surface towards water was studied by means of periodic DFT + U. Several water coverages were studied, from 1.2H₂O/nm² to 14.1H₂O/nm², corresponding to ¼, 1, 2 and 3 water/Cr at the (0 0 0 1)-Cr₂O₃ surface, respectively. With increasing coverage, water gradually completes the coordination sphere of the surface Cr atoms from 3 (dry surface) to 4 (1.2 and 4.7H₂O/nm²), 5 (9.4H₂O/nm²) and 6 (14.1H₂O/nm²). For all studied coverages, water replaces an O atom from the missing above plane. At coverages 1.2 and 4.7H₂O/nm², the Cr–O_s (surface oxygen) acid–base character and bond directionality govern the water adsorption. The adsorption is molecular at the lowest coverage. At 4.7H₂O/nm², molecular and dissociative states are isoenergetic. The activation energy barrier between the two states being as low as 12 kJ/mol, allowing protons exchanges between the OH groups, as evidenced by ab inito molecular dynamics at room temperature. At coverages of 9.4 and 14.1H₂O/nm², 1D- (respectively, 2D-) water networks are formed. The resulting surface terminations are –Cr(OH)₂ and –Cr(OH)₃– like, respectively. The increased stability of those terminations as compared to the previous ones are due to the stabilization of the adsorbed phase through a H-bond network and to the increase in the Cr coordination number, stabilizing the Cr (t_2g) orbitals in the valence band. An atomistic thermodynamic approach allows us to specify the temperature and water pressure domains of prevalence for each surface termination. It is found that the –Cr(OH)₃-like, –Cr(OH)₂ and anhydrous surfaces may be stabilized depending on (T, P) conditions. Calculated energies of adsorption and OH frequencies are in good agreement with published experimental data and support the full hydroxylation model, where the Cr achieves a 6-fold coordination, at saturation.     

Adsorption energy and geometry of physisorbed organic molecules on Au(1 1 1) probed by surface-state photoemission

The modification of the Au(1 1 1) Shockley-type surface state by an adsorbed monolayer of large π-conjugated molecules was investigated by high-resolution angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). We determined binding energy, band mass, and Rashba-splitting and discuss the results in the context of rare-gas adsorption on noble metals. This comparison allows the determination of the bonding strength of the adsorbates, found to be physisorptive with derived binding energies per molecule of 2.0 eV for perylene-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride (PTCDA) and 1.5 eV for naphtalene-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride (NTCDA). We will also present a superstructure model for the NTCDA/Au(1 1 1) system, deduced from low energy electron diffraction images (LEED) in combination with substrate band-backfolding.     

Density functional study of ethylamine and allylamine on Si(1 0 0)-2 × 1 and Ge(1 0 0)-2 × 1 surfaces

We have investigated the interactions of ethylamine and allylamine with models of the Si(1 0 0)-2 × 1 and Ge(1 0 0)-2 × 1 semiconductor surfaces. Ab initio molecular orbital calculations, along with density functional theory (DFT), are used to examine the interaction of these amines with cluster models of the semiconductor surfaces. The transition states and final adsorption products for adsorption of the molecules are predicted. The DFT calculations show the amines form N-dative bond states with Si(1 0 0)-2 × 1 or Ge(1 0 0)-2 × 1 as the initial adsorption product. The initial dative-bond products can be further activated, resulting in N-H bond cleavage on both surfaces. The overall reaction of a given amine on Si(1 0 0) via N-H dissociation is more exothermic than on the Ge(1 0 0) surface.     

Fibrinogen adsorption onto 316L stainless steel, Nitinol and titanium

Fibrinogen adsorption onto mechanically polished biomedical grade 316L stainless steel (316LSS), nickel titanium alloy (Nitinol) and commercially pure titanium (CpTi) surfaces were studied by measurements of adsorption isotherms and adsorption kinetics using an ex-situ wavelength dispersive spectroscopy technique (WDS). Surface composition, roughness and wettability of these materials were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle (WCA) measurements. Adsorption isotherm results showed that surface protein concentration on these materials increased with increasing concentration of fibrinogen in phosphate buffer solution. The fibrinogen adsorption isotherms were modeled by both the monolayer Langmuir isotherm and the multilayer Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) isotherm. The results strongly suggest that fibrinogen forms multilayer structures on these materials when the concentration in solution is high. Complementary measurements on the absorbed fibrinogen films by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) support this view.     

Methods for calculating the desorption rate of molecules from a surface at non-zero coverage: Water on MgO(0 0 1)

We present calculations of the desorption rate of water molecules from MgO(0 0 1) at a range of coverages θ and temperatures T. Our aim is to demonstrate that this can be done without making uncontrollable statistical mechanical approximations, and we achieve this by using the potential of mean force method reported previously. As in our earlier work on desorption of isolated molecules, we use a classical interaction model. We find that correlations between adsorbed molecules greatly increase the simulation time needed to obtain good statistical accuracy, compared with the isolated molecule. The activation energy for desorption varies significantly with coverage. The calculations also yield the chemical potential of adsorbed molecules as a function of θ and T, from which we can deduce the critical temperature and coverage for phase separation of adsorbed molecules.