Search results for "Crystal-structure"
showing 10 items of 61 documents
Blistering mechanisms of atomic-layer-deposited AlN and Al2O3 films
2017
Blistering of protective, structural, and functional coatings is a reliability risk pestering films ranging from elemental to ceramic ones. The driving force behind blistering comes from either excess hydrogen at the film-substrate interface or stress-driven buckling. Contrary to the stress-driven mechanism, the hydrogen-initiated one is poorly understood. Recently, it was shown that in the bulk Al-Al2O3 system, the blistering is preceded by the formation of nano-sized cavities on the substrate. The stress-and hydrogen-driven mechanisms in atomic-layer-deposited (ALD) films are explored here. We clarify issues in the hydrogen-related mechanism via high-resolution microscopy and show that at…
Structure of Rhodococcus erythropolis limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase reveals a novel active site
2003
Epoxide hydrolases are essential for the processing of epoxide-containing compounds in detoxification or metabolism. The classic epoxide hydrolases have an alpha/beta hydrolase fold and act via a two-step reaction mechanism including an enzyme-substrate intermediate. We report here the structure of the limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase from Rhodococcus erythropolis, solved using single-wavelength anomalous dispersion from a selenomethionine-substituted protein and refined at 1.2 A resolution. This enzyme represents a completely different structure and a novel one-step mechanism. The fold features a highly curved six-stranded mixed beta-sheet, with four alpha-helices packed onto it to create a …
Structural and magnetic characterization of a 1D chain of [Co(II)2(mu-aqua)(mu-carboxylate)2] strung cores.
2009
A novel 1D chain built up from stringing of [Co2(μ-OH 2)(μ-O2CC(CH3)3)2] units with the bridging 2,2′-bipyrimidine ligand has been synthesized and structurally characterized. The chains are well isolated from each other by the bulky tert-butyl groups of the carboxlyates and show an alternating zigzag configuration for the Co(II) metallic centres. DC magnetic measurements show anti-ferromagnetic coupling, Jca.-3 cm-1 between adjacent Co(II) ions along the chain. Noticeably, good data fitting was obtained by means of simple models that neglect any kind of first order orbital contribution to the spin ground state, which is normally observed in Co(II) complexes. These results were further confi…
Tips and turns of bacteriophytochrome photoactivation
2020
Phytochromes are ubiquitous photosensor proteins, which control the growth, reproduction and movement in plants, fungi and bacteria. Phytochromes switch between two photophysical states depending on the light conditions. In analogy to molecular machines, light absorption induces a series of structural changes that are transduced from the bilin chromophore, through the protein, and to the output domains. Recent progress towards understanding this structural mechanism of signal transduction has been manifold. We describe this progress with a focus on bacteriophytochromes. We describe the mechanism along three structural tiers, which are the chromophore-binding pocket, the photosensory module,…
Molecular basis of the interaction of novel tributyltin(IV) 2/4-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl] benzoates endowed with an improved cytotoxic profile: Synth…
2010
A series of tributyltin(IV) complexes based on 2/4-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]benzoate ligands was synthesized, wherein the position of the carboxylate and aryl substituents (methyl, tert-butyl and hydroxyl) varies. The complexes, Bu(3)SnL(1-4)H (1-4), have been structurally characterized by elemental analysis and IR, NMR ((1)H, (13)C, and (119)Sn) and (119)Sn Mossbauer spectroscopy. All have a tetrahedral geometry in solution and a trigonal bipyramidal geometry in the solid-state, except for Bu(3)SnL(4)H (4) that was ascertained to have tetrahedral coordination by X-ray crystallography. Cytotoxicity studies were carried out on human tumor cell lines A498 (renal cancer), EVSA-T (mammary cance…
Magnetoelectric coupling driven by inverse magnetostriction in multiferroic BiMn3Mn4O12
2013
By means of neutron powder diffraction, we investigated the effect of the polar Bi$^{3+}$ ion on the magnetic ordering of the Mn$^{3+}$ ions in BiMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$, the counterpart with \textit{quadruple} perovskite structure of the \textit{simple} perovskite BiMnO$_3$. The data are consistent with a \textit{noncentrosymmetric} spacegroup $Im$ which contrasts the \textit{centrosymmetric} one $I2/m$ previously reported for the isovalent and isomorphic compound LaMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$, which gives evidence of a Bi$^{3+}$-induced polarization of the lattice. At low temperature, the two Mn$^{3+}$ sublattices of the $A'$ and $B$ sites order antiferromagnetically (AFM) in an independent manner …
Stability and nature of the volume collapse of ε-Fe2O3 under extreme conditions
2018
Iron oxides are among the major constituents of the deep Earth’s interior. Among them, the epsilon phase of Fe2O3 is one of the less studied polymorphs and there is a lack of information about its structural, electronic and magnetic transformations at extreme conditions. Here we report the precise determination of its equation of state and a deep analysis of the evolution of the polyhedral units under compression, thanks to the agreement between our experiments and ab-initio simulations. Our results indicate that this material, with remarkable magnetic properties, is stable at pressures up to 27 GPa. Above 27 GPa, a volume collapse has been observed and ascribed to a change of the local env…
Highly stable and porous porphyrin-based zirconium and hafnium phosphonates – electron crystallography as an important tool for structure elucidation
2018
The Ni-metallated porphyrin-based tetraphosphonic acid (Ni-tetra(4-phosphonophenyl)porphyrin, Ni-H8TPPP) was used for the synthesis of highly porous metal phosphonates containing the tetravalent cations Zr4+ and Hf4+. The compounds were thoroughly characterized regarding their sorption properties towards N2 and H2O as well as thermal and chemical stability. During the synthesis optimization the reaction time could be substantially decreased under stirring from 24 to 3 h in glass vials. M-CAU-30, [M2(Ni-H2TPPP)(OH/F)2]·H2O (M = Zr, Hf) shows exceptionally high specific surface areas for metal phosphonates of aBET = 1070 and 1030 m2 g-1 for Zr- and Hf-CAU-30, respectively, which are very clos…
Compression of Silver Sulfide: X-ray Diffraction Measurements and Total-Energy Calculations
2012
[EN] Angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction measurements have been performed in acanthite, Ag2S, up to 18 GPa in order to investigate its high-pressure structural behavior. They have been complemented by ab initio electronic structure calculations. From our experimental data, we have determined that two different high-pressure phase transitions take place at 5 and 10.5 GPa. The first pressure-induced transition is from the initial anti-PbCl2-like monoclinic structure (space group P2(1)/n) to an orthorhombic Ag2Se-type structure (space group P2(1)2(1)2(1)). The compressibility of the lattice parameters and the equation of state of both phases have been determined. A second phase transition to a …
Pbca-Type In2O3: The High-Pressure Post-Corundum phase at Room Temperature.
2014
High-pressure powder X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering measurements in cubic bixbyite-type indium oxide (c-In2O3) have been performed at room temperature. On increasing pressure c-In2O3 undergoes a transition to the Rh2O3-II structure but on decreasing pressure Rh2O3-II-type In2O3 undergoes a transition to a previously unknown phase with Pbca space group which is isostructural to Rh2O3-III. On further decrease of pressure, we observed a phase transition to the metastable corundum-type In2O3 near room conditions. Recompression of the metastable corundum-type In2O3 at room temperature leads to a transition to the Rh2O3-III phase, thus showing that the Rh2O3-III phase is the post-corundum…