Search results for "Theoretical and Computational Chemistry"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
Force Field for Water over Pt(111): Development, Assessment, and Comparison
2018
Metal/water interfaces are key in many natural and industrial processes, such as corrosion, atmospheric, or environmental chemistry. Even today, the only practical approach to simulate large interfaces between a metal and water is to perform force-field simulations. In this work, we propose a novel force field, GAL17, to describe the interaction of water and a Pt(111) surface. GAL17 builds on three terms: (i) a standard Lennard-Jones potential for the bonding interaction between the surface and water, (ii) a Gaussian term to improve the surface corrugation, and (iii) two terms describing the angular dependence of the interaction energy. The 12 parameters of this force field are fitted again…
Large numbers of cold positronium atoms created in laser-selected Rydberg states using resonant charge exchange
2016
Lasers are used to control the production of highly excited positronium atoms (Ps*). The laser light excites Cs atoms to Rydberg states that have a large cross section for resonant charge-exchange collisions with cold trapped positrons. For each trial with 30 million trapped positrons, more than 700 000 of the created Ps* have trajectories near the axis of the apparatus, and are detected using Stark ionization. This number of Ps* is 500 times higher than realized in an earlier proof-of-principle demonstration (2004 Phys. Lett. B 597 257). A second charge exchange of these near-axis Ps* with trapped antiprotons could be used to produce cold antihydrogen, and this antihydrogen production is e…
Lifetimes and g-factors of the HFS states in H-like and Li-like bismuth
2018
The LIBELLE experiment performed at the experimental storage ring (ESR) at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, has successfully determined the ground state hyperfine (HFS) splittings in hydrogen-like ($^{209}\rm{Bi}^{82+}$) and lithium-like ($^{209}\rm{Bi}^{80+}$) bismuth. The study of HFS transitions in highly charged ions enables precision tests of QED in extreme electric and magnetic fields otherwise not attainable in laboratory experiments. Besides the transition wavelengths the time resolved detection of fluorescence photons following the excitation of the ions by a pulsed laser system also allows to extract lifetimes of the upper HFS levels and g-fac…
Laser spectroscopy measurement of the 2s-hyperfine splitting in lithium-like bismuth
2017
We have recently reported on the first direct measurement of the $2s$ hyperfine transition in lithium-like bismuth (209Bi80+) at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany. Combined with a new measurement of the $1s$ hyperfine splitting (HFS) in hydrogen-like (209Bi82+) the so-called specific difference ${\rm{\Delta }}^{\prime} E=-61.37(36)$ meV could be determined and was found to be in good agreement with its prediction from strong-field bound-state quantum electrodynamics. Here we report on additional investigations performed to estimate systematic uncertainties of these results and on details of the experimental setup. We show that the dominating uncertainty a…
Modelling Photoionisation in Isocytosine: Potential Formation of Longer‐Lived Excited State Cations in its Keto Form
2021
Abstract Studying the effects of UV and VUV radiation on non‐canonical DNA/RNA nucleobases allows us to compare how they release excess energy following absorption with respect to their canonical counterparts. This has attracted much research attention in recent years because of its likely influence on the origin of our genetic lexicon in prebiotic times. Here we present a CASSCF and XMS‐CASPT2 theoretical study of the photoionisation of non‐canonical pyrimidine nucleobase isocytosine in both its keto and enol tautomeric forms. We analyse their lowest energy cationic excited states including 2π+ , 2nO+ and 2nN+ and compare these to the corresponding electronic states in cytosine. Investigat…
Water-Dependent Blending of Pectin Films: The Mechanics of Conjoined Biopolymers
2020
Biodegradable pectin polymers have been recommended for a variety of biomedical applications, ranging from the delivery of oral drugs to the repair of injured visceral organs. A promising approach to regulate pectin biostability is the blending of pectin films. To investigate the development of conjoined films, we examined the physical properties of high-methoxyl pectin polymer-polymer (homopolymer) interactions at the adhesive interface. Pectin polymers were tested in glass phase (10&ndash
Computational Studies of Materials for Energy Technology: CO2 Methanation, and Halloysite Carbon-Coating
2022
The models and theories of quantum chemistry are applied in order to study two kinds of materials of interest in the field of energy technology, to understand their behavior and to verify their suitability for possible application. In particular, the effect of single Ru/Fe atom deposition on the CO2 methanation reaction occurring on the Ni(111) surface, and the effect on the band gap produced by carbon atom deposition and carbon cluster accretion on the silicic surface of halloysite, have been investigated by means of the periodic and molecular flavours of density functional theory. In order to accomplish the investigations above two entirely new computer codes were written and are actually…
The Effect of Calcium on the Cohesive Strength and Flexural Properties of Low-Methoxyl Pectin Biopolymers.
2019
Abstract: Pectin binds the mesothelial glycocalyx of visceral organs, suggesting its potential role as a mesothelial sealant. To assess the mechanical properties of pectin films, we compared pectin films with a less than 50% degree of methyl esterification (low-methoxyl pectin, LMP) to films with greater than 50% methyl esterification (high-methoxyl pectin, HMP). LMP and HMP polymers were prepared by step-wise dissolution and high-shear mixing. Both LMP and HMP films demonstrated a comparable clear appearance. Fracture mechanics demonstrated that the LMP films had a lower burst strength than HMP films at a variety of calcium concentrations and hydration states. The water content also influe…
OpenMolcas: From Source Code to Insight
2019
In this article we describe the OpenMolcas environment and invite the computational chemistry community to collaborate. The open-source project already includes a large number of new developments realized during the transition from the commercial MOLCAS product to the open-source platform. The paper initially describes the technical details of the new software development platform. This is followed by brief presentations of many new methods, implementations, and features of the OpenMolcas program suite. These developments include novel wave function methods such as stochastic complete active space self-consistent field, density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) methods, and hybrid multico…
Theoretical and experimental studies of some main group compounds : from closed shell interactions to singlet diradicals and stable radicals
2012
Acquiring knowledge of different interactions within and between molecules is a fascinating undertaking as it not only deepens our understanding of chemical bonding but also offers insight into electronic structures, molecular properties and the connections between these two. This dissertation combines together three main group chemistry related topics within the aforementioned theme. Research presented in the first third of this dissertation describes wave function and density functional theory studies of weak inter- and intramolecular interactions in pnictogen-based dimers X3Pn···PnX3 (Pn = N-Bi; X = F-I), dithallenes RTlTlR (R = H, Me, tBu, Ph) and octachalcogen dications Ch82+ (Ch = S, …