Search results for " function"
showing 10 items of 9395 documents
Oxygen-assisted hydroxymatairesinol dehydrogenation: a selective secondary-alcohol oxidation over a gold catalyst.
2013
Selective dehydrogenation of the biomass-derived lignan hydroxymatairesinol (HMR) to oxomatairesinol (oxoMAT) was studied over an Au/Al(2)O(3) catalyst. The reaction was carried out in a semi-batch glass reactor at 343 K under two different gas atmospheres, namely produced through synthetic air or nitrogen. The studied reaction is, in fact, an example of secondary-alcohol oxidation over an Au catalyst. Thus, the investigated reaction mechanism of HMR oxidative dehydrogenation is useful for the fundamental understanding of other secondary-alcohol dehydrogenation over Au surfaces. To investigate the elementary catalytic steps ruling both oxygen-free- and oxygen-assisted dehydrogenation of HMR…
Hydro-dimerization of Pt2Cl2(C2H4)2: model reaction to capture details on catalytic mechanisms
2005
Abstract The density functional theory was employed to mimic the homogeneous hydro-dimerization of the Zeise-similar dichloro-bis(ethene)-platinum(II), PtCl 2 ( C 2 H 4 ) 2 . Three energy minima and four transition-states were involved in the reaction mechanism, which was even characterized by a catalytic cycle. The minima were fully optimized at B3LYP level whereas the transition-states were first individuated at the same level, by the synchronous transit-guided quasi-Newton method, then fully optimized. The mechanistic hypotheses on the PtCl 2 ( C 2 H 4 ) 2 dimerization implied the displacement of two ethene or two ethane molecules, respectively, occurring in absence or in presence of mol…
Towards an Understanding of the Polar Diels–Alder Reactions of Nitrosoalkenes with Enamines: A Theoretical Study
2006
The polar Diels–Alder reactions of nitrosoalkenes with enamines have been studied using DFT methods at the B3LYP/6-31G* level of theory. These Diels–Alder reactions are characterized by a nucleophilic attack of the enamine at the conjugated position of the nitrosoalkene with concomitant ring-closure. The reactions present a total regioselectivity and a large endo selectivity. The analysis, based on the global electrophilicity of the reagents in the ground state, the natural bond orbital (NBO), and the topological analysis of the electron localization function (ELF) in the endo transition state (TS) and “halfway” along the IRC between the TS and cycloadduct, correctly explain the polar natur…
Unraveling the Role of the Rh–ZrO2 Interface in the Water–Gas-Shift Reaction via a First-Principles Microkinetic Study
2018
The industrially important water–gas-shift (WGS) reaction is a complex network of competing elementary reactions in which the catalyst is a multicomponent system consisting of distinct domains. Herein, we have combined density functional theory calculations with microkinetic modeling to explore the active phase, kinetics, and reaction mechanism of the WGS over the Rh–ZrO2 interface. We have explicitly considered the support and metal and their interface and find that the Rh–ZrO2 interface is far more active toward WGS than Rh(111) facets, which are susceptible to CO poisoning. CO2 forming on the zirconia support rapidly transforms into formate. These findings demonstrate the central role of…
Understanding the mechanism of polar Diels–Alder reactions
2009
A good correlation between the activation energy and the polar character of Diels-Alder reactions measured as the charge transfer at the transition state structure has been found. This electronic parameter controls the reaction rate to an even greater extent than other recognized structural features. The proposed polar mechanism, which is characterized by the electrophilic/nucleophilic interactions at the transition state structure, can be easily predicted by analyzing the electrophilicity/nucleophilicity indices defined within the conceptual density functional theory. Due to the significance of the polarity of the reaction, Diels-Alder reactions should be classified as non-polar (N), polar…
Coadsorption of NRR and HER Intermediates Determines the Performance of Ru-N4 toward Electrocatalytic N2 Reduction
2021
Efficiency of the electrochemical N2 reduction reaction (NRR) to ammonia is seriously limited by the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) but our current atomic-scale insight on the factors controlling HER/NRR competition are unknown. Herein we unveil the elementary mechanism, thermodynamics, and kinetics determining the HER/NRR selectivity on the state-of-the-art NRR electrocatalyst, Ru-N4 using constant potential density functional theory calculations (DFT). The calculations show that NRR and HER intermediates coadsorb on the catalyst where HER is greatly suppressed by the NRR intermediates. The first reaction step leading to either *NNH or *H determines the selectivity towards NRR…
A Quantitative Model for Alkane Nucleophilicity Based on C−H Bond Structural/Topological Descriptors
2020
A first quantitative model for calculating the nucleophilicity of alkanes is described. A statistical treatment was applied to the analysis of the reactivity of 29 different alkane C−H bonds towards in situ generated metal carbene electrophiles. The correlation of the recently reported experimental reactivity with two different sets of descriptors comprising a total of 86 parameters was studied, resulting in the quantitative descriptor‐based alkane nucleophilicity (QDEAN) model. This model consists of an equation with only six structural/topological descriptors, and reproduces the relative reactivity of the alkane C−H bonds. This reactivity can be calculated from parameters emerging from th…
A statistical analysis of the three-fold evolution of genomic compression through frame overlaps in prokaryotes
2007
Abstract Background Among microbial genomes, genetic information is frequently compressed, exploiting redundancies in the genetic code in order to store information in overlapping genes. We investigate the length, phase and orientation properties of overlap in 58 prokaryotic species evaluating neutral and selective mechanisms of evolution. Results Using a variety of statistical null models we find patterns of compressive coding that can not be explained purely in terms of the selective processes favoring genome minimization or translational coupling. The distribution of overlap lengths follows a fat-tailed distribution, in which a significant proportion of overlaps are in excess of 100 base…
Teacher’s Verbal Communication in the Use of Reciprocal Teaching for Reading Comprehension: An Exploratory Study
2023
Nelle classi di scuola primaria delle tre ultime annualità, molti alunni hanno difficoltà a comprendere quello che leggono male, come si ricava dalla letteratura scientifica e dalle rilevazioni nazionali e internazionali. Il Reciprocal Teaching (RT) è una pratica di apprendimento cooperativo implementata con successo per sostenere e facilitare la comprensione del testo scritto. Alla ricerca hanno partecipato 10 insegnanti di scuola primaria, 73 alunni di classe quinta primaria hanno svolto un’attività di lettura guidata con il RT. Le interazioni verbali in classe sono state osservate; successivamente sono stati analizzati i protocolli raccolti durante le osservazioni nei gruppi per verifica…
Suggestions to the Reader
1998
Each section of the book consists of two parts that have different goals. The first part, namely the text itself, is systematically developed. It consists of definitions and proven assertions assembled in an organized fashion and with no significant gaps for the reader to fill. All propositions and theorems, unless ready consequences of definitions and previously proven assertions, are proved in detail.