Pressure-induced polymerization of 1,4-difluorobenzene towards fluorinated diamond nanothreads

Che, G.*; Fei, Y.*; Tang, X.*; Zhao, Z.*; Hattori, Takanori; Abe, Jun*; Wang, X.*; Ju, J.*; Dong, X.*; Wang, Y.*; et al.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 27(2), p.1112 - 1118, 2025/01

https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CP03751K

Pressure-induced polymerization (PIP) of aromatic molecules has emerged as an effective method for synthesizing various carbon-based materials. In this work, PIP of 1,4-difluorobenzene (1,4-DFB) was investigated. high-pressure investigations of 1,4-DFB reveal a phase transition at approximately 12.0 GPa and an irreversible chemical reaction at 18.7 GPa. Structural analysis of the product and the kinetics of the reaction uncovered the formation of pseudohexagonal stacked fluoro-diamond nanothreads with linear growth. Compared to the crystal structures of benzene under high pressure, 1,4-DFB exhibits higher compression along the [001] axis. The anisotropic compression is attributed to the stronger H interaction along the [01] axis and the potential compression-inhibiting HF interactions along the [100] and [010] axes, and it facilitates a possible reaction pathway along the [01] axis. This work emphasizes the crucial role of functionalization in modulating molecular stacking and influencing the reaction pathway.

Incorporation of a bromine atom into DNA-related molecules changes their electronic properties

Hirato, Misaki*; Yokoya, Akinari*; Baba, Yuji*; Mori, Seiji*; Fujii, Kentaro*; Wada, Shinichi*; Izumi, Yudai*; Haga, Yoshinori

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 25(21), p.14836 - 14847, 2023/05

https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CP01597A

Kinetics of the interfacial curing reaction for an epoxy-amine mixture

Yamaguchi, Ko*; Kawaguchi, Daisuke*; Miyata, Noboru*; Miyazaki, Tsukasa*; Aoki, Hiroyuki; Yamamoto, Satoru*; Tanaka, Keiji*

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 24(36), p.21578 - 21582, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CP03394A

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.

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.

Controlled deuterium labelling of imidazolium ionic liquids to probe the fine structure of the electrical double layer using neutron reflectometry

Akutsu, Kazuhiro*; Cagnes, M.*; Tamura, Kazuhisa; Kanaya, Toshiji*; Darwish, T. A.*

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 21(32), p.17512 - 17516, 2019/08

https://doi.org/10.1039/C9CP02479D

We combined the deuterium labeling and neutron reflectivity techniques to determine the fine structure of the electric double layer structure in an imidazolium ionic liquid (IL). For this, a simple and large scale deuteration method for imidazolium ILs was developed, where the deuteration level can be systematically controlled.

Nuclear quantum effects in the direct ionization process of pure helium clusters; Path-integral and ring-polymer molecular dynamics simulations on the diatomics-in-molecule potential energy surfaces

Suzuki, Kento*; Miyazaki, Takaaki*; Takayanagi, Toshiyuki*; Shiga, Motoyuki

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20(41), p.26489 - 26499, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.1039/C8CP05389H

The direct photoionization of pure helium clusters and its subsequent short-time process have been studied by path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) and ring-polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) simulations. The PIMD simulations reproduced the experimental ionization spectra with a broad and asymmetric nature, which can be ascribed to the inhomogeneity of the energy levels of He atoms. From the RPMD simulations, it is found that the ionized helium cluster in the highly excited state brings about fast electronic state relaxation via nonadiabatic charge transfer and subsequently slow structural relaxation.

X-ray absorption near edge structure and first-principles spectral investigations of cationic disorder in MgAlO induced by swift heavy ions

Yoshioka, Satoru*; Tsuruta, Konosuke*; Yamamoto, Tomokazu*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Matsumura, Sho*; Ishikawa, Norito; Kobayashi, Eiichi*

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20(7), p.4962 - 4969, 2018/02

https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CP07591J

Cationic disorder in the MgAlO spinel induced by swift heavy ions was investigated using the X-ray absorption near edge structure. With changes in the irradiation fluences of 200 MeV Xe ions, the Mg K-edge and Al K-edge spectra were synchronously changed. The calculated spectra based on density function theory indicate that the change in the experimental spectra was due to cationic disorder between Mg in tetrahedral sites and Al in octahedral sites. These results suggest a high inversion degree to an extent that the completely random configuration is achieved in MgAlO induced by the high density electronic excitation under swift heavy ion irradiation.

A Significant role of non-thermal equilibrated electrons in the formation of deleterious complex DNA damage

Kai, Takeshi; Yokoya, Akinari*; Ukai, Masatoshi*; Fujii, Kentaro*; Toigawa, Tomohiro; Watanabe, Ritsuko*

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20(4), p.2838 - 2844, 2018/01

https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CP06903K

It is thought that complex DNA damage which induces in radiation biological effects is formed at radiation track end. Thus, the earliest stage of water radiolysis at the electron track end was studied to predict DNA damage. These results indicate that DNA damage sites comprising multiple nucleobase lesions with a single strand breaks can therefore be formed by multiple collisions of the electrons within three base pairs (3bp) of a DNA strand. This multiple damage site cannot be processed by base excision repair enzymes. However, pre-hydrated electrons can also be produced resulting in an additional base lesion more than 3bp away from the multi-damage site. This clustered damage site may be finally converted into a double strand break (DSB) when base excision enzymes process the additional base lesions. These DSBs include another base lesion(s) at their termini that escape from the base excision process and which may result in biological effects such as mutation in surviving cells.

Photoexcited Ag ejection from a low-temperature He cluster; A Simulation study by nonadiabatic Ehrenfest ring-polymer molecular dynamics

Seki, Yusuke*; Takayanagi, Toshiyuki*; Shiga, Motoyuki

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 19(21), p.13798 - 13806, 2017/06

https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CP00888K

Ring-polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) simulations have been performed to understand the photoexcitation dynamics of the Ag atom embedded in a low-temperature cluster consisting of 500 helium atoms, after the electronic excitation of the Ag atom. Along the RPMD trajectory the time evolution of the electronic wavefunction within the spin-orbit P manifold is calculated, whereby the time-dependent Schrdinger equation and the RPMD equation of motion are coupled, la Ehrenfest mean field approach. It is found from the simulations that the Ag atom is mostly ejected from the helium cluster with the average time of 100 ps after photoexcitation. The average velocity of the ejected Ag atom is estimated to be 60-70 m/s. These results are qualitatively in line with previous experimental findings.