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Register a new userStructural and electronic properties of uranium-encapsulated Au14 cage
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The structural properties of the uranium-encapsulated nano-cage U@Au14 are predicted using density functional theory. The presence of the uranium atom makes the Au14 structure more stable than the empty Au14-cage, with a triplet ground electronic state for U@Au14. Analysis of the electronic structure shows that the two frontier single-occupied molecular orbital electrons of U@Au14 mainly originate from the 5f shell of the U atom after charge transfer. Meanwhile, the bonding orbitals have both the 5f and 6d components of the U atom, along with the 5d and 6s components of the Au atoms, indicating the covalent nature of the interaction between the U and Au atoms. Moreover, the charge population analysis shows that this nanostructure displays some unique electronic properties where the encapsulated atom gains electrons while the outer shell loses electrons. Therefore, this designed U@Au14 nano-cage structure is stabilized by ionocovalent interactions. The current findings provide theoretical basis for future syntheses and further study of actinide doped gold nanoclusters, which might subsequently facilitate applications of such structure in radio-labeling, nanodrug carrier and other biomedical applications.
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Hydrogen bond (H-bond) covalency has recently been observed in ice and liquid water, while the penetrating molecular orbitals (MOs) in the H-bond region of most typical water dimer system, (H2O)2, have also been discovered. However, obtaining the quantitative contribution of these MOs to the H-bond interaction is still problematic. In this work, we introduced the orbital-resolved electron density projected integral (EDPI) along the H-bond to approach this problem. The calculations show that, surprisingly, the electronic occupied orbital (HOMO-4) of (H2O)2 accounts for about 40% of the electron density at the bond critical point. Moreover, the charge transfer analysis visualizes the electron accumulating effect of the orbital interaction within the H-bond between water molecules, supporting its covalent-like character. Our work expands the classical understanding of H-bond with specific contributions from certain MOs, and will also advance further research into such covalency and offer quantitative electronic structure insights into intermolecular systems.
We applied angular X-ray Cross-Correlation analysis (XCCA) to scattering images from a femtosecond resolution LCLS X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pump-probe experiment with solvated PtPOP ([Pt$_2$(P$_2$O$_5$H$_2$)$_4$]$^{4-}$) metal complex molecules. The molecules were pumped with linear polarized laser pulses creating an excited state population with a preferred orientational (alignment) direction. Two time scales of $1.9pm1.5$ ps and $46pm10$ ps were revealed by model-independent XCCA, associated with an internal structural changes and rotational dephasing, respectively. Our studies illustrate the potential of XCCA to reveal hidden structural information in a model independent analysis of time evolution of solvated metal complex molecules.
Density-functional theory has been applied to investigate systematics of sodium clusters Na_n in the size range of n= 39-55. A clear evolutionary trend in the growth of their ground-state geometries emerges. The clusters at the beginning of the series (n=39-43) are symmetric and have partial icosahedral (two-shell) structure. The growth then goes through a series of disordered clusters (n=44-52) where the icosahedral core is lost. However, for n>52 a three shell icosahedral structure emerges. This change in the nature of the geometry is abrupt. In addition, density-functional molecular dynamics has been used to calculate the specific heat curves for the representative sizes n= 43, 45, 48 and 52. These results along with already available thermodynamic calculations for n= 40, 50, and 55 enable us to carry out a detailed comparison of the heat capacity curves with their respective geometries for the entire series. Our results clearly bring out strong correlation between the evolution of the geometries and the nature of the shape of the heat capacities. The results also firmly establish the size-sensitive nature of the heat capacities in sodium clusters.
There has long been a discrepancy between the size distributions of Ar$_n^+$ clusters measured by different groups regarding whether or not magic numbers appear at sizes corresponding to the closure of icosahedral (sub-)shells. We show that the previously observed magic cluster size distributions are likely the result of an unresolved Ar$_n$H$^+$ component, that is, from protonated argon clusters. We find that the proton impurity gives cluster geometries that are much closer to those for neutral rare gas clusters, which are known to form icosahedral structures, than the pure cationic clusters, explaining why the mass spectra from protonated argon clusters better matches these structural models. Our results thus show that even small impurities, e.g. a single proton, can significantly influence the properties of clusters.
We propose a method for quantifying charge-driven instabilities in clusters, based on equilibrium simulations under confinement at constant external pressure. This approach makes no assumptions about the mode of decay and allows different clusters to be compared on an equal footing. A comprehensive survey of stability in model clusters of 309 Lennard-Jones particles augmented with Coulomb interactions is presented. We proceed to examine dynamic signatures of instability, finding that rate constants for ejection of charged particles increase smoothly as a function of total charge with no sudden changes. For clusters where many particles carry charge, ejection of individual charges competes with a fission process that leads to more symmetric division of the cluster into large fragments. The rate constants for fission depend much more sensitively on total charge than those for ejection of individual particles.
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