Comparative analysis of heterogeneous solid and soft materials by adsorption, NMR and thermally stimulated depolarisation current methods

Structural characterisation of such bio-objects as fibrinogen solution, yeast cells, wheat seeds and bone tissues has been done using two versions of cryoporometry based on the integral Gibbs-Thomson (IGT) equation for freezing point depression of pore liquids and the measurements by ¹H NMR spectroscopy (180-200 < T < 273 K) and the thermally stimulated depolarisation current (TSDC) method (90 < T < 273 K) of structured water. The IGT equation was solved using a self-consisting regularization procedure including the maximum entropy principle applied to the distribution function of pore size (PSD). Both methods give clear pictures of changes in the structural characteristics caused, e.g., by hydration and swelling of wheat seeds and yeast cells, coagulation and interaction of fibrinogen with solid nanoparticles in the aqueous media, and the human bone tissue disease.     

Metal Ion Complexation: A Route to 2 D Templates?

The two-dimensional ordering of a number of 2,2'-bipyridine derivatives at the liquid/solid interface has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. By appropriate functionalization of the bipyridine units, their intermolecular distance can be tuned, which has proved to be crucial for complexation with metal ions. The in situ addition of metal salts (Pd(2+), Cu(2+)), leading to the formation of metal-bipyridine complexes, has a dramatic influence on the two-dimensional ordering of the molecules and suggests that these complexes could be used as templates.     

A collapsing bubble in a fluid: a statistical mechanical approach

The first non-equilibrium statistical mechanical theory is presented for the mechanical and thermal behaviour of the collapse of a microsropically small bubble in a liquid. First the number density and temperature space-time profiles for the special case of weakly interacting particles, the perfect gas model, are obtained. This is then generalized to a model in which the motion of the molecules is characterized by a single finite diffusion constant. The results for the collapse of a small bubble in a typical fluid are compared with those recently obtained through computer simulation. The agreement with the simulation is remarkably good for the perfect gas model; very high temperatures, sufficient for sonoluminescence, appear in a simple and natural way. An unexpected conclusion is that the perfect gas model agrees better with computer simulation than the model characterized by a single bulk diffusion constant. This may be because the collapse of the bubble is controlled by the leading shell of the fluid where the fluid density is low.     

Characteristics of adsorption phase with water/organic mixtures at a surface of activated carbons possessing intraparticle and textural porosities

The behaviour of water and water/organic mixtures adsorbed onto activated microporous carbons or a carbon adsorbent with narrow intraparticle micropores and broad mesopores and macropores between nanoparticles was studied using low-temperature adsorption method and ¹H NMR spectroscopy with layer-by-layer freezing-out of liquids at 190-273 K. These investigations revealed concentration-dependent effects of benzene, DMSO, acetone, chloroform, methane and acetonitrile on the characteristics of adsorbed water and the influence of this water on the interfacial behaviour of adsorbed organics. The influence of organics causes the structural and energetic differentiations of adsorbed water. The latter can be displaced by organics from micropores into broader pores and/or form mixture with polar solvents in meso and macropores. Freezing of adsorbed water can affect the adsorbent structure because ice crystallites have a larger size than that of liquid water droplets that lead to changes in the behaviour of adsorbed water/organic mixtures observed by the ¹H NMR and adsorption methods.     

About the Dominance of Mesopores in Physisorption in Amorphous Materials

Amorphous, porous materials represent by far the largest proportion of natural and men-made materials. Their pore networks consists of a wide range of pore sizes, including meso- and macropores. Within such a pore network, material moisture plays a crucial role in almost all transport processes. In the hygroscopic range, the pores are partially saturated and liquid water is only located at the pore fringe due to physisorption. Therefore, material parameters such as porosity or median pore diameter are inadequate to predict material moisture and moisture transport. To quantify the spatial distribution of material moisture, Hillerborg’s adsorption theory is used to predict the water layer thickness for different pore geometries. This is done for all pore sizes, including those in the lower nanometre range. Based on this approach, it is shown that the material moisture is almost completely located in mesopores, although the pore network is highly dominated by macropores. Thus, mesopores are mainly responsible for the moisture storage capacity, while macropores determine the moisture transport capacity, of an amorphous material. Finally, an electrical analogical circuit is used as a model to predict the diffusion coefficient based on the pore-size distribution, including physisorption.     

Physisorption kinetics of electrons at plasma boundaries

Plasma-boundaries floating in an ionized gas are usually negatively charged. They accumulate electrons more efficiently than ions leading to the formation of a quasi-stationary electron film at the boundaries. We propose to interpret the build-up of surface charges at inert plasma boundaries, where other surface modifications, for instance, implantation of particles and reconstruction or destruction of the surface due to impact of high energy particles can be neglected, as a physisorption process in front of the wall. The electron sticking coefficient s_e and the electron desorption time τ_e, which play an important role in determining the quasi-stationary surface charge, and about which little is empirically and theoretically known, can then be calculated from microscopic models for the electron-wall interaction. Irrespective of the sophistication of the models, the static part of the electron-wall interaction determines the binding energy of the electron, whereas inelastic processes at the wall determine s_e and τ_e. As an illustration, we calculate s_e and τ_e for a metal, using the simplest model in which the static part of the electron-metal interaction is approximated by the classical image potential. Assuming electrons from the plasma to loose (gain) energy at the surface by creating (annihilating) electron-hole pairs in the metal, which is treated as a jellium half-space with an infinitely high workfunction, we obtain s_e≈10^-4 and τ_e≈10^-2 s. The product s_eτ_e≈10^-6 s has the order of magnitude expected from our earlier results for the charge of dust particles in a plasma but individually s_e is unexpectedly small and τ_e is somewhat large. The former is a consequence of the small matrix elements occurring in the simple model while the latter is due to the large binding energy of the electron. More sophisticated theoretical investigations, but also experimental support, are clearly needed because if s_e is indeed as small as our exploratory calculation suggests, it would have severe consequences for the understanding of the formation of surface charges at plasma boundaries. To identify what we believe are key issues of the electronic microphysics at inert plasma boundaries and to inspire other groups to join us on our journey is the purpose of this colloquial presentation.     

Cluster-embedding method to simulate large cluster and surface problems

In order to describe processes which are localized on a surface or inside the bulk of a solid, molecular calculations of an inner cluster may be adequate as long as the effect of the outer environment is taken into account via an embedding-method. Using a relativistic density functional method for the self-consistent cluster calculation we have developed a new cluster-embedding scheme here. As an example we have studied the adsorption of Al on an Al(100) surface and we get significant agreement with different methods. This indicates that this embedding-method is reliable enough to simulate an unlimited solid. Received 29 November 2000     

氮化硼纳米管阵列储氢的计算机模拟

采用巨正则蒙特卡罗方法模拟常温、中等压强下单壁氮化硼纳米管阵列的物理吸附储氢,重点研究压强、纳米管阵列的管径和管间距对单壁氮化硼纳米管阵列物理吸附储氢的影响.计算结果表明,氮化硼纳米管阵列的储氢性能明显优于碳纳米管阵列,在常温和中等压强下的物理吸附储氢量(质量百分数)可以达到和超过美国能源部提出的商业标准.并给出相应的理论解释.     

Li_4SiO_4陶瓷小球水解吸行为实验研究

采用程序升温热解吸(TPD/TDS)方法对Li4SiO4陶瓷小球的水解吸行为进行了实验研究。结果表明:水解吸过程中主要存在四个解吸峰;其中100℃附近的峰可解释为物理吸附水;150,250,400℃附近的峰可分别解释为以氢键、Li-OH和Si-OH配位键形式存在的化学吸附水。氚的释放与水的解吸几乎同步进行,且氚的释放形式主要为氚水(HTO),据此推测,氚水可能存在三种释放机制:(1)-OT+H2O→-OH+HTO;(2)-OH+-OH→H2O,-OT+H2O→-OH+HTO;(3)-OT+-OH→HTO。     

硼掺杂富勒烯储氢-从物理吸附到化学吸附的转变

本文采用密度泛函理论(DFT)中的局域密度近似(LDA)方法对硼(B)掺杂富勒烯(C_(35)B)储氢问题在前人的基础上做了进一步研究,结果表明被C_(35)B吸附的氢分子很容易解离,经历从物理吸附到化学吸附的转变,并且发现解离产物C_(34)BHCH有分子内氢转移反应发生,这时B原子仍能与氢分子有很强的相互作用,最终导致B位置以及与B最邻近的三个C原子上都有氢原子吸附.并利用过渡态理论从热力学上分析了这种反应的发生趋势.