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Full-Text Articles in Physical Chemistry

Characteristics And Stability Of Oxide Films On Plutonium Surfaces, Harry Guillermo García Flores Dec 2010

Characteristics And Stability Of Oxide Films On Plutonium Surfaces, Harry Guillermo García Flores

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The oxidation of plutonium (Pu) metal continues to be an area of considerable activity. The reaction characteristics have significant implications for production use, storage, and disposition of this radiological material. Developing an accurate physical model of the structures, oxidation states, and oxygen concentration gradients present during oxidation are essential to understanding this process. Traditionally, the stable oxides of Pu have been thought to be plutonium sesquioxide (Pu2O3, O/Pu = 1.5, Pu3+) and plutonium dioxide (PuO2, O/Pu = 2.0, Pu4+), existing in a layered structure on Pu metal. Many of the …


Synthesis And Catalytic Activity Of Nanostructured Cerium Oxide, Neil J. Lawrence Dec 2010

Synthesis And Catalytic Activity Of Nanostructured Cerium Oxide, Neil J. Lawrence

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cerium oxide (ceria, CeO2-x where x is 0 to 0.5) has been one of the most widely used heterogeneous catalysts particularly in three way catalytic converters. Most of the catalytic traits can be attributed to two properties of ceria: first, the high mobility and storage capacity of oxygen within the lattice; second, the ease with which cerium changes between Ce3+ and Ce4+ states. These properties, combined with the abundance of cerium on earth, make ceria a low-cost highly effective alternative to noble metal catalysts. Recent research has been focused on the nanoscale properties of ceria.

The effect …


Theoretical And Experimental Studies In Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Adrienne M. Roehrich Aug 2010

Theoretical And Experimental Studies In Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Adrienne M. Roehrich

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a tool used to probe the physical and chemical environments of specific atoms in molecules. This research explored small molecule analogues to biological materials to determine NMR parameters using ab initio computations, comparing the results with solid-state NMR measurements. Models, such as dimethyl phosphate (DMP) for oligonucleotides or CuCl for the active site of the protein azurin, represented computationally unwieldy macromolecules. 31P chemical shielding tensors were calculated for DMP as a function of torsion angles, as well as for the phosphate salts, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADHP), diammonium hydrogen phosphate, and magnesium dihydrogen phosphate. The …


Two-Dimensional To Three-Dimensional Structural Transition Of Gold Cluster Au 10 During Soft Landing On Tio 2 Surface And Its Effect On Co Oxidation, Hui Li, Yong Pei, Xiao Cheng Zeng Jan 2010

Two-Dimensional To Three-Dimensional Structural Transition Of Gold Cluster Au 10 During Soft Landing On Tio 2 Surface And Its Effect On Co Oxidation, Hui Li, Yong Pei, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

We investigate the possible structural transition of a planar Au10 cluster during its soft landing on a TiO2 (110) surface with or with no oxygen defects. The collision between the gold cluster and the oxide surface is simulated using the Car–Parrinello quantum molecular dynamics method. Both high-speed and low-speed conditions typically implemented in soft-landing experiments are simulated. It is found that under a high-speed condition, the gold cluster Au10 can undergo a sequence of structural transitions after colliding with a defect-free TiO2 (110) surface. When the TiO2 (110) surface possesses oxygen vacancies, however, chemical bonds …


Icosahedral B12-Containing Core–Shell Structures Of B80, Hui Li, Nan Shao, Bo Shang, Lan-Feng Yuan, Jinlong Yang, Xiao Cheng Zeng Jan 2010

Icosahedral B12-Containing Core–Shell Structures Of B80, Hui Li, Nan Shao, Bo Shang, Lan-Feng Yuan, Jinlong Yang, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

Low-lying icosahedral (Ih) B12-containing structures of B80 are explored, and a number of core–shell isomers are found to have lower energy than the previous predicted B80 fullerene. The structural transformation of boron clusters from tubular structure to core–shell structure may occur at a critical size less than B80.


Graphene-Like Bilayer Hexagonal Silicon Polymorph, Jaeil Bai, Hideki Tanaka, Xiao Cheng Zeng Jan 2010

Graphene-Like Bilayer Hexagonal Silicon Polymorph, Jaeil Bai, Hideki Tanaka, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

We present molecular dynamics simulation evidence for a freezing transition from liquid silicon to quasi-twodimensional (quasi-2D) bilayer silicon in a slit nanopore. This new quasi-2D polymorph of silicon exhibits a bilayer hexagonal structure in which the covalent coordination number of every silicon atom is four. Quantum molecular dynamics simulations show that the stand-alone bilayer silicon (without the confinement) is still stable at 400 K. Electronic band-structure calculations suggest that the bilayer hexagonal silicon is a quasi-2D semimetal, similar to a graphene monolayer, but with an indirect zero band gap.


Molecular Dynamics Studies Of Simple Model Fluids And Water Confined In Carbon Nanotube, Jun Wang Jan 2010

Molecular Dynamics Studies Of Simple Model Fluids And Water Confined In Carbon Nanotube, Jun Wang

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation is one of the most important computational techniques with broad applications in physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, materials design and biological science. Traditional computational chemistry refers to quantum calculations based on solving Schrodinger equations. Later developed Density Functional Theory (DFT) based on solving Kohn-Sham equations became the more popular ab initio calculation technique which could deal with ~1000 atoms by explicitly considering electron interactions. In contrast, MD simulation based on solving classical mechanics equations of motion is a totally different technique in the field of computational chemistry. Electron interactions were implicitly included in the empirical atom-based potential …