Structures of liquid and aqueous water isotopologues at ambient temperature from path integral simulations

Thomsen, B.; Shiga, Motoyuki

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 24(18), p.10851 - 10859, 2022/05

https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CP00499B

study of nuclear quantum effects on sub- and supercritical water

Thomsen, B.; Shiga, Motoyuki

Journal of Chemical Physics, 155(19), p.194107_1 - 194107_11, 2021/11

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0071857

Phase transition and chemical reactivity of 1H-tetrazole under high pressure up to 100 GPa

Gao, D.*; Tang, X.*; Wang, X.*; Yang, X.*; Zhang, P.*; Che, G.*; Han, J.*; Hattori, Takanori; Wang, Y.*; Dong, X.*; et al.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 23(35), p.19503 - 19510, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CP02913D

Pressure-induced phase transition and polymerization of nitrogen-rich molecules are widely focused due to its extreme importance for the development of green high energy density materials. Here, we present a study of the phase transition and chemical reaction of 1H-tetrazole up to 100 GPa by using Raman, IR, X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction techniques and theoretical calculation. A phase transition above 2.6 GPa was identified and the high-pressure structure was determined with one molecule in a unit cell. The 1H-tetrazole polymerizes reversibly below 100 GPa, probably through a carbon-nitrogen bonding instead of nitrogen-nitrogen bonding. Our studies updated the structure model of the high pressure phase of 1H-tetrazole, and presented the possible intermolecular bonding route for the first time, which gives new insights to understand the phase transition and chemical reaction of nitrogen-rich compounds, and benefit for designing new high energy density materials.

Relevance of hydrogen bonded associates to the transport properties and nanoscale dynamics of liquid and supercooled 2-propanol

Zhai, Y.*; Luo, P.*; Nagao, Michihiro*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kienzle, P. A.*; Z, Y.*; Faraone, A.*

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 23(12), p.7220 - 7232, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cp05481j

Radiation-induced effects on the extraction properties of hexa--octylnitrilo-triacetamide (HONTA) complexes of americium and europium

Toigawa, Tomohiro; Peterman, D. R.*; Meeker, D. S.*; Grimes, T. S.*; Zalupski, P. R.*; Mezyk, S. P.*; Cook, A. R.*; Yamashita, Shinichi*; Kumagai, Yuta; Matsumura, Tatsuro; et al.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 23(2), p.1343 - 1351, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CP05720G

The candidate An(III)/Ln(III) separation ligand hexa--octylnitrilo-triacetamide (HONTA) was irradiated under envisioned SELECT (Solvent Extraction from Liquid waste using Extractants of CHON-type for Transmutation) process conditions using a solvent test loop in conjunction with cobalt-60 gamma irradiation. We demonstrate that HONTA undergoes exponential decay with increasing gamma dose to produce a range of degradation products which have been identified and quantified by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS techniques. The combination of HONTA destruction and degradation product ingrowth, particularly dioctylamine, negatively impacts the extraction and back-extraction of both americium and europium ions. The loss of HONTA was attributed to its reaction with the solvent (-dodecane) radical cation of (HONTA + R) = (7.61 0.82) 10 M s obtained by pulse radiolysis techniques. However, when this ligand is bound to either americium or europium ions, the observed -dodecane radical cation kinetics increase by over an order of magnitude. This large reactivity increase to additional reaction pathways occurring upon metal-ion binding. Lastly nanosecond time-resolved measurements showed that both direct and indirect HONTA radiolysis yielded the short-lived (100 ns) HONTA radical cation as well as a longer-lived (s) HONTA triplet excited state. These HONTA species are important precursors to the suite of HONTA degradation products observed.

Structure refinement of black phosphorus under high pressure

Akahama, Yuichi*; Miyakawa, Masashi*; Taniguchi, Takashi*; Sano, Asami; Machida, Shinichi*; Hattori, Takanori

Journal of Chemical Physics, 153(1), p.014704_1 - 014704_5, 2020/07

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0012870

The structure refinement of black phosphorus was performed at pressures of up to 3.2 GPa at room temperature by powder neutron diffraction techniques. The bond lengths and bond angles between the phosphorus atoms at pressures were precisely determined and confirmed to be consistent with those of the previous single crystal X-ray analysis [Brown and Randqvist, Acta Cryst. 19, 684 (1965)]. Although lattice parameters exhibited an anisotropic compressibility, the covalent P1-P2 and P1-P3 bond lengths were almost independent of pressure and only the P3-P1-P2 bond angle was reduced significantly. On the basis of our results, the significant discrepancy in the bond length reported by Cartz et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 71, 1718 (1979)] has been solved. Our structural data will contribute to the elucidation of the Dirac semimetal state of black phosphorus under high pressure.

Terahertz and mid-infrared spectroscopy of matrix-isolated clusters and matrix-sublimation ice of DO

Yamakawa, Koichiro; Nasu, Hirokazu*; Suzuki, Natsumi*; Shimizu, Genki*; Arakawa, Ichiro*

Journal of Chemical Physics, 152(17), p.174310_1 - 174310_13, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0005766

We have established an apparatus for terahertz and mid-infrared spectroscopy in an ultrahigh vacuum and have measured absorption spectra of DO clusters trapped in solid Ar. To assign terahertz absorption peaks due to the DO dimer, trimer, and tetramer, the dependence of the spectrum on the annealing temperature and DO dilution was analyzed. The assignment was also examined by ab initio calculations with use of the ONIOM method, where flexibility of surrounding Ar atoms was systematically incorporated. We identified all of the intermolecular fundamentals of the dimer and those with significant intensities of the trimer and tetramer, whose structural symmetries were revealed to be broken down. After isolating the DO clusters in solid Ar, we sublimated only Ar atoms to leave behind matrix-sublimation ice, which was found to be amorphous- or crystal-like depending on the formation conditions: the dilution and sublimation-temperature. Since the crystallinity got higher with raising the dilution and sublimation-temperature, the diffusion of the DO monomer on the surface of sublimating solid Ar was found to be crucial to the crystallization of the sublimation ice.

Quantum chemical calculations for the norbadione A complexes with Cs, K, and Na in gas and aqueous phases

Suno, Hiroya; Machida, Masahiko

Chemical Physics Letters, 730, p.26 - 31, 2019/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2019.05.012

We perform quantum chemical calculations for the Cs, K, and Na complexes of norbadione A (NBA), a pigment molecule in mushrooms known to accumulate Cs. A numerical two-step approach, by Ota , is employed to examine its alkali-metal-cation complexation selectivity in aqueous solutions. Applying it to the neutral, di- and tetra-deprotonated NBAs, we confirm that the complexation selectivity on Cs emerges only in high pHs, in which the di-protonated NBA dominates, in agreement with experimental results. This is the first demonstration of the approach for a biological molecule whose selectivity is known to be anomalous.

Mechanism of phase transfer of uranyl ions; A Vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy study on solvent extraction in nuclear reprocessing

Kusaka, Ryoji; Watanabe, Masayuki

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20(47), p.29588 - 29590, 2018/12

https://doi.org/10.1039/C8CP04558E

Mechanistic understanding of solvent extraction of uranyl ions (UO) by tributyl phosphate (TBP) will help improve the technology for the treatment and disposal of spent nuclear fuels. So far, it has been believed that uranyl ions in the aqueous phase are adsorbed to a TBP-enriched organic/aqueous interface, form complexes with TBP at the interface, and are extracted into the organic phase. Here we show that uranyl-TBP complex formation does not take place at the interface using vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy and propose an alternative extraction mechanism that uranyl nitrate, UO(NO), passes through the interface and forms the uranyl-TBP complex, UO(NO)(TBP), in the organic phase.

Thermal behavior, structure, dynamic properties of aqueous glycine solutions confined in mesoporous silica MCM-41 investigated by X-ray diffraction and quasi-elastic neutron scattering

Yoshida, Koji*; Inoue, Takuya*; Torigoe, Motokatsu*; Yamada, Takeshi*; Shibata, Kaoru; Yamaguchi, Toshio*

Journal of Chemical Physics, 149(12), p.124502_1 - 124502_10, 2018/09

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5039892

Differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) measurements of aqueous glycine solutions confined in mesoporous silica (MCM-41) were performed at different glycine concentrations, pH, and loading ratio (= mass of glycine solution / mass of dry MCM-41) in the temperature range from 305 to 180 K to discuss the confinement effect on the thermal behavior, the structure, and the dynamic properties of the solutions.