No Arabic abstract
The object of this study is the kinetic process of solid-liquid first-order phase transition - melting of carbon dioxide CS-I hydrate with various cavity occupation ratios. The work was done within a framework of study on the local structure of water molecules. These include the time depending change of the short-range order at temperatures close to the melting point and comparison with hexagonal ice structure. Using molecular dynamics method, dependencies of the internal energy of the studied systems on the time of heating were found. Jumps in the internal energy of solids in the range at 275-300 K indicate a phase transition. The study of oxygen-oxygen radial distribution and hydrogen-oxygen-oxygen mutual orientation angles between molecules detached at no more than 3.2 angstroms allowed to find the H-bond coordination number of all molecules and full number of H-bonds and showed the instant (less than 1 nanosecond) reorganization of short-range order of all molecules. The structure analysis of every neighbor water molecules pairs showed the ~10-15 percents decrease of H-bond number after the melting whereas all molecules form single long-range hydrogen bond network. The analysis of hydrogen bond network showed the minor changes in the H-bond interaction energy at solid-liquid phase transition.
Over the years, plenty of classical interaction potentials for water have been developed and tested against structural, dynamical and thermodynamic properties. On the other hands, it has been recently observed (F. Martelli et. al, textit{ACS Nano}, textbf{14}, 8616--8623, 2020) that the topology of the hydrogen bond network (HBN) is a very sensitive measure that should be considered when developing new interaction potentials. Here we report a thorough comparison of 11 popular non polarizable classical water models against their HBN, which is at the root of water properties. We probe the topology of the HBN using the ring statistics and we evaluate the quality of the network inspecting the percentage of broken and intact HBs. For each water model, we assess the tendency to develop hexagonal rings (that promote crystallization at low temperatures) and pentagonal rings (known to frustrate against crystallization at low temperatures). We then introduce the emph{network complexity index}, a general descriptor to quantify how much the topology of a given network deviates from that of the ground state, namely of hexagonal or cubic ice. Remarkably, we find that the network complexity index allows us to relate, for the first time, the dynamical properties of different water models with their underlying topology of the HBN. Our study provides a benchmark against which the performances of new models should be tested against, and introduces a general way to quantify the complexity of a network which can be transferred to other materials and that links the topology of the HBN with dynamical properties. Finally, our study introduces a new perspective that can help in rationalizing the transformations among the different phases of water and of other materials.
We present ab initio results at the density functional theory level for the energetics and kinetics of H_2 and CH_4 in the SI clathrate hydrate. Our results complement a recent article by some of the authors [G. Roman-Perez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 145901 (2010)] in that we show additional results of the energy landscape of H_2 and CH_4 in the various cages of the host material, as well as further results for energy barriers for all possible diffusion paths of H_2 and CH_4 through the water framework. We also report structural data of the low-pressure phase SI and the higher-pressure phases SII and SH.
Water freezes below 0 {deg}C at ambient pressure, ordinarily to ice Ih with an ABAB... hexagonal stacking sequence. However, it is also known to produce ice Ic nominally with an ABCABC... cubic stacking sequence under certain conditions1, and its existence in Earths atmosphere, or in comets is debated. Ice Ic, or called as cubic ice, was first identified in 1943 by Konig, who used electron microscopy to study the condensation of ice from water vapor to a cold substrate. Subsequently, many different routes to ice Ic have been established, such as the dissociation of gas hydrates, warming amorphous ices or annealing high-pressure ices recovered at ambient pressure, freezing of $mu$- or nano-confined water. Despite the numerous studies on ice Ic, its structure has not been fully verified, because the diffraction patterns of ice Ic show signatures of stacking-disorder, and ideal ice Ic without stacking-disorder had not been formed until very recently. Here we demonstrate a route to obtain ice Ic without stacking-disorder by degassing hydrogen from the high-pressure form of hydrogen hydrate, C$_2$, which has a host framework that is isostructural with ice Ic. Surprisingly, the stacking-disorder free ice Ic is formed from C$_2$ via an intermediate amorphous or nano-crystalline form under decompression, unlike the direct transformations that occur in the cases of recently discovered ice XVI from neon hydrate, or ice XVII from hydrogen hydrate. The obtained ice Ic shows remarkable thermal stability until the phase transition to ice Ih at 250 K; this thermal stability originates from the lack of dislocations, which promote changes in the stacking sequence. This discovery of ideal ice Ic will promote understanding of the role of stacking-disorder on the physical properties of ice as a counter end-member of ice Ih.
Aluminum borohydride (Al(BH$_4$)$_3$) is an example of a promising hydrogen storage material with exceptional hydrogen densities by weight and volume and a low hydrogen desorption temperature. But, unfortunately, its production of diborane (B$_2$H$_6$) gases upon heating to release the hydrogen restricts its practical use. To elucidate this issue, we investigate the properties of a number of metal borohydrides with the same problem and find that the electronegativity of the metal cation is not the best descriptor of diborane production. We show that, instead, the closely related formation enthalpy is a better descriptor and we find that diborane production is an exponential function thereof. We conclude that diborane production is sufficiently suppressed for formation enthalpies of $-$80 kJ/mol BH$_4$ or lower, providing specific design guidelines to tune existing metal borohydrides or synthesize new ones. We then use first-principles methods to study the effects of Sc alloying in Al(BH$_4$)$_3$. Our results for the thermodynamic properties of the Al$_{1-x}$Sc$_x$(BH$_4$)$_3$ alloy clearly show the stabilizing effect of Sc alloying and thus the suppression of diborane production. We conclude that stabilizing Al(BH$_4$)$_3$ and similar borohydrides via alloying or other means is a promising route to suppress diborane production and thus develop viable hydrogen storage materials.
Electrochemical CO2 reduction is a promising strategy for utilization of CO2 and intermittent excess electricity. Cu is the only single-metal catalyst that can electrochemically convert CO2 to multi-carbon products. However, Cu has an undesirable selectivity and activity for C2 products, due to its insufficient amount of CO* for C-C coupling. Considering the strong CO2 adsorption and ultra-fast reaction kinetics of CO* formation on Pd, an intimate CuPd(100) interface was designed to lower the intermediate reaction barriers and then improve the efficiency of C2 products. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations showed that the CuPd(100) interface has enhanced CO2 adsorption and decreased CO2* hydrogenation energy barrier, which are beneficial for C-C coupling. The potential-determining step (PDS) barrier of CO2 to C2 products on CuPd(100) interface is 0.61 eV, which is lower than that on Cu(100) (0.72 eV). Motivated by the DFT calculation, the CuPd(100) interface catalyst was prepared by a facile chemical solution method and demonstrated by transmission electron microscope (TEM). The CO2 temperature programmed desorption (CO2-TPD) and gas sensor experiments proved the enhancements of CO2 adsorption and CO2* hydrogenation abilities on CuPd(100) interface catalyst. As a result, the obtained CuPd(100) interface catalyst exhibits a C2 Faradaic efficiency of 50.3 (+/-) 1.2% at -1.4 VRHE in 0.1 M KHCO3, which is 2.1 times higher than 23.6(+/-) 1.5% of Cu catalyst. This work provides a rational design of Cu-based electrocatalyst for multi-carbon products by fine-tuning the intermediate reaction barriers.