Electronic and Structural Properties of Highly Aluminum Ion Doped TiO2 Nanoparticles: A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study

This study presents the experimental and theoretical study of highly internally Al‐doped TiO₂ nanoparticles. Two synthesis methods were used and detailed characterization was performed. There were differences in the doping and the crystallinity, but the nanoparticles synthesized with the different methods share common features. Anatase to rutile transformation occurred at higher temperatures with Al doping. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed the generation of oxygen vacancies, which is an interesting feature in photocatalysis. In turn, the band‐gap energy and the valence band did not change appreciably. Periodic density functional calculations were performed to model the experimentally doped structures, the formation of the oxygen vacancies, and the band gap. Calculation of the density of states confirmed the experimental band‐gap energies. The theoretical results confirmed the presence of Ti⁴⁺ and Al³⁺. The charge density study and electron localization function analysis indicated that the inclusion of Al in the anatase structure resulted in a strengthening of the Ti?O bonds around the vacancy.     

UV-Vis Spectrum and the Third-order Nonlinear Optical Properties of the Chiral Camphorderived β-diketonate Platinum Complexes

UV-Vis spectrum and the third-order nonlinear optical properties of the chiral camphor-derived β-diketonate have been studied at the B3LYP/6-31G* level. The results showed that the introduction of electron-drawing group-CF3 and-C3F7 on β-diketonate made the strongest absorption peak red-shift and the lowest energy absorption blue-shied. Introduction of-OC2H5 on the benzene or pyridine ring made the lowest energy absorption blue-shift. When the-C2H3 was introduced on the benzene or pyridine ring, the lowest energy absorption was red-shifted. Introduction of electron-donating group on β-diketonate can enlarge their nonlinear optical properties. On the contrary, the introduction of electron-drawing group dropped it down.     

Tuning of NaTaO_3 Band Structure through Mn~（2＋） Ion Doping and the Enhanced Visible Light Response

Pure and Mn-doped NaTaO3 nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple hydro- thermal method. XRD and XPS results suggested that manganese ions were successfully doped into the NaTaO3 crystalline in Mn2＋ state. UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra revealed the obvious red-shift in the series of manganese doped NaTaO3 nanoparticles, resulting in a decrease in the band gap of NaTaO3 with the increase of Mn2＋ doping concentration. The photo-degradation experiment indicated that manganese doped NaTaO3 showed good photocatalytic performance and methylene blue（MB） degradation is improved with lower doping concentration of manganese ions under visible light. The simulation of energy band structure by density functional theory unfolded that the substitution of Ta5＋ ions by Mn2＋ ions resulted in an intermediate band（IB） below the bottom of the conduction band（CB）, which was mainly attributed to the state of Mn 3d.     

Theory Study of the Adsorption of Hydrocyanic Acid onto Small Silver Clusters

Density functional theory calculations have been performed to study the interaction of small silver clusters, Ag2 ~Ag9, with HCN. The adsorption of HCN on-top site of the silver cluster, among various possible sites, is energetically preferred. The adsorption energies of HCN on the silver clusters reach a local maximum at n = 4, which is only about 0.450 eV, indicating that the adsorbed HCN molecule is weakly perturbed. The adsorbed C–N and C–H stretching frequencies are blue- and red-shifted compared with the values of free HCN, respectively.     

三(4-硝基苯基)甲烷衍生物的结构和振动光谱的理论研究（英文）

用密度泛函理论优化了三苯甲烷(1)和一系列三(4-硝基苯基)甲烷衍生物2,3和4的几何结构,并计算了其红外光谱和拉曼光谱;通过与实验光谱的对比,对实验光谱中的谱峰进行了指认,并从理论上纠正了部分对3和4红外光谱谱峰不合适的实验指认;同时预测了2,3和4的拉曼光谱.结果表明,几种化合物的振动光谱计算结果与相应的实验结果吻合良好;且化合物2,3和4的拉曼光谱具有相似性.     

A comparative DFT study of Fe3+ and Fe2+ ions adsorption on (100) and (110) surfaces of pyrite: An electrochemical point of view

Pyrite acts as a catalyst in the mineral processing, and the speed of ferric ion reduction and mineral decomposition increases with increasing cathodic points. In this study, the ferric ion interaction on the (100) and (110) surfaces of pyrite was studied using the density functional theory calculations. The analysis of stability, density of states, and electron density were performed to understand the interaction between the ferric ion and pyrite surfaces. The results showed that pyrite surface is chemically active and tends to absorb ferric ion between two surface sulfur atoms. The hyperconjugation between the 3d orbital of ferric ion and the 3p or 3d orbitals of surface atoms provides the conditions for the Fe³⁺ ion adsorption. The molecular orbital (MO) and electron density analyses indicate that the 3p orbitals of S atoms play a more important role in bonds formations relative to the 3d orbitals. The (110) surface is more active, and the adsorption energy is larger than that of surface (100), which is the result of decreased cation coordination and the presence of sulfur at the surface. Subsequently, the interaction of the Fe²⁺ ion, as product of Fe³⁺ ion reduction and its competitor for adsorption, on the surfaces was studied. The Fe^{2 +} ion adsorbs stronger at the surface of (110), and the adsorption energies at (100) and (110) surfaces were obtained as −24 and −47 kcal/mol, respectively. In general, the Fe³⁺ ion is a stronger oxidizing agent than Fe²⁺ on pyrite surfaces.     

Performance of a parallel viscoelastic-viscoplastic model for a microcellular thermoplastic foam on wide temperature range

This paper is concerned with the experimental testing and the constitutive modelling of a thermoplastic microcellular polyethylene-terephthalate (MC-PET) foam on the temperature range of 21–210 °C in order to investigate the temperature-dependent performance of the applied parallel viscoelastic-viscoplastic material model. By means of carefully designed uniaxial mechanical tests in temperature chamber, the viscous, elastic and yielding behaviours of the investigated material are identified, which are then applied for selecting suitable viscoelastic-viscoplastic constitutive models. The material characterization process is conducted using finite-element-based fitting method, including also the analysis of the applied numerical optimization algorithm. The fitting results are used to analyse the parameter sensitivity and to propose closed-form analytical relations for the temperature dependency of the material parameters. Finally, the utilisation of the analytical temperature functions for speeding up the parameter-fitting process is also demonstrated.     

Density Functional Studies of Coenzyme NADPH and Its Oxidized Form NADP+: Structures,UV–Vis Spectra,and the Oxidation Mechanism of NADPH

Density functional theory has been used to study the biologically important coenzyme NADPH and its oxidized form NADP⁺. It was found that free NADPH prefers a compact structure in gas phase and exists in more extended geometries in aqueous solution. Ultraviolet–visible absorption spectra in aqueous solution were calculated for NADPH with an explicit treatment of 100 surrounding water molecules in combination with the COSMO solvation model for bulk hydration effects. The obtained spectra using the B3LYP hybrid density functional agree quite well with experimental data. The changes of Gibbs free energies ΔG in reactions of NADPH with O₂ observed experimentally in cardiovascular and in chemical systems, that is, NADPH + 2 ³O₂ → NADP⁺ + 2 O₂⁻ + H⁺ and NADPH + ¹O₂ + H⁺ → NADP⁺ + H₂O₂, respectively, were calculated. The NADPH oxidation reaction in the cardiovascular system cannot proceed without activation since the obtained ΔG is positive. The reaction of NADPH in the chemical system with singlet oxygen was found to proceed in two ways, each consisting of two steps, that is, NADPH firstly reacts with ¹O₂ barrierlessly to form NADP⁺ and HO₂⁻, from which H₂O₂ is formed in a spontaneous reaction with H⁺, or ¹O₂ and H⁺ initially form ¹HO₂⁺, which further reacts with NADPH to yield NADP⁺ and H₂O₂. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Computational Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

PyCDFT: A Python package for constrained density functional theory

We present PyCDFT, a Python package to compute diabatic states using constrained density functional theory (CDFT). PyCDFT provides an object-oriented, customizable implementation of CDFT, and allows for both single-point self-consistent-field calculations and geometry optimizations. PyCDFT is designed to interface with existing density functional theory (DFT) codes to perform CDFT calculations where constraint potentials are added to the Kohn–Sham Hamiltonian. Here, we demonstrate the use of PyCDFT by performing calculations with a massively parallel first-principles molecular dynamics code, Qbox, and we benchmark its accuracy by computing the electronic coupling between diabatic states for a set of organic molecules. We show that PyCDFT yields results in agreement with existing implementations and is a robust and flexible package for performing CDFT calculations. The program is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3821097 .     

Aqueous Diels–Alder reactions for thermochemical storage and heat transfer fluids identified using density functional theory

Thermal storage and transfer fluids have important applications in industrial, transportation, and domestic settings. Current thermal fluids have relatively low specific heats, often significantly below that of water. However, by introducing a thermochemical reaction to a base fluid, it is possible to enhance the fluid's thermal properties. In this work, density functional theory (DFT) is used to screen Diels–Alder reactions for use in aqueous thermal fluids. From an initial set of 52 reactions, four are identified with moderate aqueous solubility and predicted turning temperature near the liquid region of water. These reactions are selectively modified through 60 total functional group substitutions to produce novel reactions with improved solubility and thermal properties. Among the reactions generated by functional group substitution, seven have promising predicted thermal properties, significantly improving specific heat (by as much as 30.5%) and energy storage density (by as much as 4.9%) compared to pure water.