scholarly journals Hydride- and Halide-Substituted Au9(PH3)83+ Nanoclusters: Similar Absorption Spectra Disguise Distinct Geometries and Electronic Structures

Author(s):  
Yavuz S. Ceylan ◽  
Rebecca Gieseking

Ligands can dramatically affect the electronic structure of gold nanoclusters (NCs) and provide a useful handle to tune the properties required for nanomaterials that have high performance for important functions like catalysis. Recently, questions have arisen about the nature of the interactions of hydride and halide ligands with Au NCs: hydride and halide ligands have similar effects on the absorption spectra of Au NCs, which suggested that the interactions of the two classes of ligands with the Au core may be similar. Here, we elucidate the interactions of halide and hydride ligands on phosphine-protected gold clusters via theoretical investigations. The computed absorption spectra using time-dependent density functional theory are in reasonable agreement with the experimental spectra, confirming that the computational methods are capturing the ligand-metal interactions accurately. Despite the similarities in the absorption spectra, the hydride and halide ligands have distinct geometric and electronic effects. The hydride ligand behaves as a metal dopant and contributes its two electrons to the number of superatomic electrons, while the halides act as electron-withdrawing ligands and do not change the number of superatomic electrons. Clarifying the binding modes of these ligands will aid in future efforts to use ligand derivatization as a powerful tool to rationally design Au NCs for use in functional materials.<br>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yavuz S. Ceylan ◽  
Rebecca Gieseking

Ligands can dramatically affect the electronic structure of gold nanoclusters (NCs) and provide a useful handle to tune the properties required for nanomaterials that have high performance for important functions like catalysis. Recently, questions have arisen about the nature of the interactions of hydride and halide ligands with Au NCs: hydride and halide ligands have similar effects on the absorption spectra of Au NCs, which suggested that the interactions of the two classes of ligands with the Au core may be similar. Here, we elucidate the interactions of halide and hydride ligands on phosphine-protected gold clusters via theoretical investigations. The computed absorption spectra using time-dependent density functional theory are in reasonable agreement with the experimental spectra, confirming that the computational methods are capturing the ligand-metal interactions accurately. Despite the similarities in the absorption spectra, the hydride and halide ligands have distinct geometric and electronic effects. The hydride ligand behaves as a metal dopant and contributes its two electrons to the number of superatomic electrons, while the halides act as electron-withdrawing ligands and do not change the number of superatomic electrons. Clarifying the binding modes of these ligands will aid in future efforts to use ligand derivatization as a powerful tool to rationally design Au NCs for use in functional materials.<br>


Author(s):  
David R. Allan ◽  
Daniel Bailey ◽  
Nigel Bird ◽  
Alexander J. Blake ◽  
Neil R. Champness ◽  
...  

The mononuclear macrocyclic PdIIcomplexcis-[PdCl2([9]aneS3)] ([9]aneS3= 1,4,7-trithiacyclo-nonane) converts at 44 kbar into an intensely coloured chain polymer exhibiting distorted octahedral coordination at the metal centre and an unprecedented [1233] conformation for the thioether ligand. The evolution of an intramolecular axial sulfur–metal interaction and an intermolecular equatorial sulfur–metal interaction is central to these changes. High-pressure crystallographic experiments have also been undertaken on the related complexes [PtCl2([9]aneS3)], [PdBr2([9]aneS3)], [PtBr2([9]aneS3)], [PdI2([9]aneS3)] and [PtI2([9]aneS3)] in order to establish the effects of changing the halide ligands and the metal centre on the behaviour of these complexes under pressure. While all complexes undergo contraction of the various interaction distances with increasing pressure, only [PdCl2([9]aneS3)] undergoes a phase change. Pressure-induced I...I interactions were observed for [PdI2([9]aneS3)] and [PtI2([9]aneS3)] at 19 kbar, but the corresponding Br...Br interactions in [PdBr2([9]aneS3)] and [PtBr2([9]aneS3)] only become significant at much higher pressure (58 kbar). Accompanying density functional theory (DFT) calculations have yielded interaction energies and bond orders for the sulfur–metal interactions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 1283-1285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Cirri ◽  
Hanna Morales Hernández ◽  
Christopher J. Johnson

Hydride and halide ligands in gold nanoclusters exhibit an unexpected similar electronic relationship, suggesting an underlying chemical linkage between them.


1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 628-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Holubová ◽  
Zdeněk Černošek ◽  
Ivan Pavlík

The effect of the halide ligand on the bonding of niobium in niobocene dichloride and niobocene diiodide was investigated. The electronic absorption spectra of the two compounds in the range of d-d transitions were resolved into four bands corresponding to transitions of the d1 electron between five frontier orbitals in a molecule of symmetry point group C2v. The energies of the frontier molecular orbitals were determined relatively to the energy of the orbitals in the spherically symmetric ligand field formed by the appropriate halide ligands. The effect of the halide ligands on the spin-orbital interaction of the HOMO orbital is discussed qualitatively on the basis the ESR spectra.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Li ◽  
Xiaobo Li ◽  
Shidong Zhang ◽  
Liemao Cao ◽  
Fangping Ouyang ◽  
...  

AbstractStrain engineering has become one of the effective methods to tune the electronic structures of materials, which can be introduced into the molecular junction to induce some unique physical effects. The various γ-graphyne nanoribbons (γ-GYNRs) embedded between gold (Au) electrodes with strain controlling have been designed, involving the calculation of the spin-dependent transport properties by employing the density functional theory. Our calculated results exhibit that the presence of strain has a great effect on transport properties of molecular junctions, which can obviously enhance the coupling between the γ-GYNR and Au electrodes. We find that the current flowing through the strained nanojunction is larger than that of the unstrained one. What is more, the length and strained shape of the γ-GYNR serves as the important factors which affect the transport properties of molecular junctions. Simultaneously, the phenomenon of spin-splitting occurs after introducing strain into nanojunction, implying that strain engineering may be a new means to regulate the electron spin. Our work can provide theoretical basis for designing of high performance graphyne-based devices in the future.


Nanophotonics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1741-1751
Author(s):  
Young In Jhon ◽  
Jinho Lee ◽  
Young Min Jhon ◽  
Ju Han Lee

Abstract Metallic 2D materials can be promising saturable absorbers for ultrashort pulsed laser production in the long wavelength regime. However, preparing and manipulating their 2D structures without layer stacking have been nontrivial. Using a combined experimental and theoretical approach, we demonstrate here that a metallic titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx), the most popular MXene 2D material, can have excellent nonlinear saturable absorption properties even in a highly stacked state due to its intrinsically existing surface termination, and thus can produce mode-locked femtosecond pulsed lasers in the 1.9-μm infrared range. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the electronic and optical properties of Ti3C2Tx MXene can be well preserved against significant layer stacking. Indeed, it is experimentally shown that 1.914-μm femtosecond pulsed lasers with a duration of 897 fs are readily generated within a fiber cavity using hundreds-of-layer stacked Ti3C2Tx MXene saturable absorbers, not only being much easier to manufacture than mono- or few-layered ones, but also offering character-conserved tightly-assembled 2D materials for advanced performance. This work strongly suggests that as-obtained highly stacked Ti3C2Tx MXenes can serve as superb material platforms for versatile nanophotonic applications, paving the way toward cost-effective, high-performance photonic devices based on MXenes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Yun Tian ◽  
Oliver Gutfleisch ◽  
Olle Eriksson ◽  
Levente Vitos

AbstractTetragonal ($${\hbox{L1}}_{0}$$ L1 0 ) FeNi is a promising material for high-performance rare-earth-free permanent magnets. Pure tetragonal FeNi is very difficult to synthesize due to its low chemical order–disorder transition temperature ($$\approx {593}$$ ≈ 593  K), and thus one must consider alternative non-equilibrium processing routes and alloy design strategies that make the formation of tetragonal FeNi feasible. In this paper, we investigate by density functional theory as implemented in the exact muffin-tin orbitals method whether alloying FeNi with a suitable element can have a positive impact on the phase formation and ordering properties while largely maintaining its attractive intrinsic magnetic properties. We find that small amount of non-magnetic (Al and Ti) or magnetic (Cr and Co) elements increase the order–disorder transition temperature. Adding Mo to the Co-doped system further enhances the ordering temperature while the Curie temperature is decreased only by a few degrees. Our results show that alloying is a viable route to stabilizing the ordered tetragonal phase of FeNi.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1738
Author(s):  
Saeid Vafaei ◽  
Alexander Wolosz ◽  
Catlin Ethridge ◽  
Udo Schnupf ◽  
Nagisa Hattori ◽  
...  

SnO2 nanoparticles are regarded as attractive, functional materials because of their versatile applications. SnO2 nanoaggregates with single-nanometer-scale lumpy surfaces provide opportunities to enhance hetero-material interfacial areas, leading to the performance improvement of materials and devices. For the first time, we demonstrate that SnO2 nanoaggregates with oxygen vacancies can be produced by a simple, low-temperature sol-gel approach combined with freeze-drying. We characterize the initiation of the low-temperature crystal growth of the obtained SnO2 nanoaggregates using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The results indicate that Sn (II) hydroxide precursors are converted into submicrometer-scale nanoaggregates consisting of uniform SnO2 spherical nanocrystals (2~5 nm in size). As the sol-gel reaction time increases, further crystallization is observed through the neighboring particles in a confined part of the aggregates, while the specific surface areas of the SnO2 samples increase concomitantly. In addition, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements suggest that Sn (II) ions exist in the SnO2 samples when the reactions are stopped after a short time or when a relatively high concentration of Sn (II) is involved in the corresponding sol-gel reactions. Understanding this low-temperature growth of 3D SnO2 will provide new avenues for developing and producing high-performance, photofunctional nanomaterials via a cost-effective and scalable method.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Wiebeler ◽  
Joachim Vollbrecht ◽  
Adam Neuba ◽  
Heinz-Siegfried Kitzerow ◽  
Stefan Schumacher

AbstractA detailed investigation of the energy levels of perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic tetraethylester as a representative compound for the whole family of perylene esters was performed. It was revealed via electrochemical measurements that one oxidation and two reductions take place. The bandgaps determined via the electrochemical approach are in good agreement with the optical bandgap obtained from the absorption spectra via a Tauc plot. In addition, absorption spectra in dependence of the electrochemical potential were the basis for extensive quantum-chemical calculations of the neutral, monoanionic, and dianionic molecules. For this purpose, calculations based on density functional theory were compared with post-Hartree–Fock methods and the CAM-B3LYP functional proved to be the most reliable choice for the calculation of absorption spectra. Furthermore, spectral features found experimentally could be reproduced with vibronic calculations and allowed to understand their origins. In particular, the two lowest energy absorption bands of the anion are not caused by absorption of two distinct electronic states, which might have been expected from vertical excitation calculations, but both states exhibit a strong vibronic progression resulting in contributions to both bands.


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