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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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261 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2011

Modeling intermolecular interactions of physisorbed organic molecules using pair potential calculations

The understanding and control of epitaxial growth of organic thin films is of crucial importance in order to optimize the performance of future electronic devices. In particular, the start of the submonolayer growth plays an important role since it often determines the structure of the first layer and subsequently of the entire molecular film. We have investigated the structure formation of 3,4,9,10-perylene-tetracarboxylic dianhydride and copper-phthalocyanine molecules on Au(111) using pair-potential calculations based on van der Waals and electrostatic intermolecular interactions. The results are compared with the fundamental lateral structures known from experiment and an excellent agreement was found for these weakly interacting systems. Furthermore, the calculations are even suitable for chemisorptive adsorption as demonstrated for copper-phthalocyanine/Cu(111), if the influence of charge transfer between substrate and molecules is known and the corresponding charge redistribution in the molecules can be estimated. The calculations are of general applicability for molecular adsorbate systems which are dominated by electrostatic and van der Waals interaction.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Dynamical screening of van der Waals interactions in nanostructured solids: Sublimation of fullerenes

Sublimation energy is one of the most important properties of molecular crystals, but it is difficult to study, because the attractive long-range van der Waals (vdW) interaction plays an important role. Here, we apply efficient semilocal density functional theory (DFT), corrected with the dynamically screened vdW interaction (DFT + vdW), the Rutgers-Chalmers nonlocal vdW-DF, and the pairwise-based dispersion-corrected DFT-D2 developed by Grimme and co-workers, to study the sublimation of fullerenes. We find that the short-range part, which accounts for the interaction due to the orbital overlap between fullerenes, is negligibly small. Our calculation shows that there exists a strong screening effect on the vdW interaction arising from the valence electrons of fullerenes. On the other hand, higher-order contributions can be as important as the leading-order term. The reasons are that (i) the surface of fullerene molecules is metallic and thus highly polarizable, (ii) the band gap of fullerene solids is small (less than 2 eV), and (iii) fullerene molecules in the solid phase are so densely packed, yielding the high valence electron density and small equilibrium intermolecular distances (the first nearest neighbor distance is only about 10 Å for C{sub 60}). However, these two effects make opposite contributions, leading to significant error cancellation between these two contributions. We demonstrate that, by considering higher-order contributions and the dynamical screening, the DFT + vdW method can yield sublimation energies of fullerenes in good agreement with reference values, followed by vdW-DF and DFT-D2. The insights from this study are important for a better understanding of the long-range nature of vdW interactions in nanostructured solids.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Theoretical studies for the N{sub 2}–N{sub 2}O van der Waals complex: The potential energy surface, intermolecular vibrations, and rotational transition frequencies

Theoretical studies of the potential energy surface (PES) and bound states are performed for the N{sub 2}–N{sub 2}O van der Waals (vdW) complex. A four-dimensional intermolecular PES is constructed at the level of single and double excitation coupled-cluster method with a non-iterative perturbation treatment of triple excitations [CCSD(T)] with aug-cc-pVTZ basis set supplemented with bond functions. Two equivalent T-shaped global minima are located, in which the O atom of N{sub 2}O monomer is near the N{sub 2} monomer. The intermolecular fundamental vibrational states are assigned by inspecting the orientation of the nodal surface of the wavefunctions. The calculated frequency for intermolecular disrotation mode is 23.086 cm{sup −1}, which is in good agreement with the available experimental data of 22.334 cm{sup −1}. A negligible tunneling splitting with the value of 4.2 MHz is determined for the ground vibrational state and the tunneling splitting increases as the increment of the vibrational frequencies. Rotational levels and transition frequencies are calculated for both isotopomers {sup 14}N{sub 2}–N{sub 2}O and {sup 15}N{sub 2}–N{sub 2}O. The accuracy of the PES is validated by the good agreement between theoretical and experimental results for the transition frequencies and spectroscopic parameters.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Structures of glass-forming liquids by x-ray scattering: Glycerol, xylitol, and D-sorbitol

In this work, synchrotron X-ray scattering has been used to investigate three liquid polyalcohols of different sizes (glycerol, xylitol and D-sorbitol) from above the glass transition temperatures $T_g$ to below. We focus on two structural orders: the association of the polar OH groups by hydrogen bonds (HBs) and the packing of the non-polar hydrocarbon groups. We find that the two structural orders evolve very differently reflecting the different natures of bonding. Upon cooling from 400 K, the O$\cdots$O correlation at 2.8 Å increases significantly in all three systems, indicating more HBs, until kinetic arrest at $T_g$; the increase is well described by an equilibrium between bonded and non-bonded OH with ΔH = 9.1 kJ/mol and ΔS = 13.4 J/mol/K. When heated above $T_g$, glycerol loses the fewest HBs per OH, followed by xylitol and by D-sorbitol, in the same order the number of OH groups per molecule increases (3, 5, and 6). The pair correlation functions of all three liquids show exponentially damped density modulations of wavelength 4.5 Å, which are associated with the main scattering peak and with the intermolecular C$\cdots$C correlation. In this respect, glycerol is the most ordered with the most persistent density ripples, followed by D-sorbitol and by xylitol. Heating above $T_g$ causes faster damping of the density ripples with the rate of change being the slowest in xylitol, followed by glycerol and by D-sorbitol. Given the different dynamic fragility of the three liquids (glycerol being the strongest and D-sorbitol the most fragile), we relate our results to the current theories of the structural origin for the difference. We find that the fragility difference is better understood on the basis of the thermal stability of HB clusters than that of the structure associated with the main scattering peak.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2013

A new ab initio potential energy surface for the collisional excitation of HCN by para- and ortho-H{sub 2}

We present a new four-dimensional potential energy surface for the collisional excitation of HCN by H{sub 2}. Ab initio calculations of the HCN–H{sub 2} van der Waals complex, considering both molecules as rigid rotors, were carried out at the explicitly correlated coupled cluster with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations [CCSD(T)-F12a] level of theory using an augmented correlation-consistent triple zeta (aVTZ) basis set. The equilibrium structure is linear HCN–H{sub 2} with the nitrogen pointing towards H{sub 2} at an intermolecular separation of 7.20 a{sub 0}. The corresponding well depth is −195.20 cm{sup −1}. A secondary minimum of −183.59 cm{sup −1} was found for a T-shape configuration with the H of HCN pointing to the center of mass of H{sub 2}. We also determine the rovibrational energy levels of the HCN–para-H{sub 2} and HCN–ortho-H{sub 2} complexes. The calculated dissociation energies for the para and ortho complexes are 37.79 cm{sup −1} and 60.26 cm{sup −1}, respectively. The calculated ro-vibrational transitions in the HCN–H{sub 2} complex are found to agree by more than 0.5% with the available experimental data, confirming the accuracy of the potential energy surface.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Cytochrome Nanowire XRD

Microbial metabolism plays an important role in the global cycling of carbon, nutrients, and metals. Recent discovery of microorganisms sharing energy using direct electrical connections might represent a prominent strategy by which anaerobic microorganisms interact with the diversity of environments. The purpose of the proposed research is to apply these newly developed principles of electron exchange in microbial communities to the study of biogeochemical cycling in climate and subsurface systems. Previous studies revealed that soil bacteria Geobacter sulfurreducens produce conductive pili nanofilaments that facilitate long-range electron transport to extracellular electron acceptors and other cells. This discovery has already transformed our understanding of the function of microbial communities in diverse environments, making basic contributions to microbial ecology and helping to improve practical applications such as increasing current output of microbial fuel cells and enhancing the conversion of organic waste to methane. Microbial electron exchange via pili may also contribute to methane production in terrestrial environments that are major sources of atmospheric methane. However, the mechanism of electron transport through pili is not well understood. Initial studies have suggested that pili exhibit metallic-like conductivity similar to conducting polymer polyaniline. However, these studies were limited to electrical measurements. X-ray diffraction studies have suggested that aromatic amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine are closely packed in pili. But these studies used homology modeling to predict the pilus assembly and information about the number of monomers in each pilus assembly unit and their organization are still lacking. The central hypothesis of this proposal is aromatics in pili enable intermolecular electron delocalization due to pi-stacking that can give rise to metallic-like conductivity. By analyzing pili structure using infrared scattering-scanning near field optical microscope (IR s-SNOM) and combining with solution NMR, Focused Ion Beam (FIB and computational capabilities, this work will provide comprehensive understanding of the conduction mechanism from a structure-function perspective. The specific aims are: 1) With infrared scattering scanning near field optical microscope (IR s-SNOM), image the organization and density of pilin monomers and pH-induced conformational changes in a pilus filament. 2) With solution NMR, resolve pH-induced structural changes in the pilin monomer. 3) Using Focused Ion Beam (FIB), draw electrodes on single pili to measure their conductivity. 4) With computational modeling using the NWChem, simulate the effect of environment on the electronic properties of pili as a function of pH. The proposed work will gain the nanoscale insight into the structure of the pili, as the basis for understanding interspecies electrical communications. The improved understanding will be harnessed to accelerate bioenergy production and bioremediation using pili as well as for predictive modeling of carbon cycling in diverse environments to reach the central goals of DOE-BER to develop sustainable energy sources, regulate the contaminants in the subsurface and understand the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on biosphere. The proposed studies will provide design principles for engineering of electrical interactions among these communities by manipulating the amino acid composition of pili. Moreover, these studies will identify the forces that maintain the function of these communities in the face of environmental perturbation. Therefore, these studies will help to address the need "to incorporate process understanding of biogeochemical cycling into a scalable hierarchy of predictive capabilities" specified in EMSL's Science Themes.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Monte Carlo MP2-F12 for Noncovalent Interactions: The C 60 Dimer

A scalable stochastic algorithm is presented that can evaluate explicitly correlated (F12) second-order many-body perturbation (MP2) energies of weak, noncovalent, intermolecular interactions. It first transforms the formulas of the MP2 and F12 energy differences into a short sum of high-dimensional integrals of Green’s functions in real space and imaginary time. Furthermore, these integrals are then evaluated by the Monte Carlo method augmented by parallel execution, redundant-walker convergence acceleration, direct-sampling autocorrelation elimination, and control-variate error reduction. By sharing electron-pair walkers across the supermolecule and its subsystems spanned by the joint basis set, the statistical uncertainty is reduced by one to 2 orders of magnitude in the MP2 binding energy corrected for the basis-set incompleteness and superposition errors. The method predicts the MP2-F12/aug-cc-pVDZ binding energy of 19.1 ± 4.0 kcal mol –1 for the C 60 dimer at the center distance of 9.748 Å.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

The study of basis sets for the calculation of the structure and dynamics of the benzene-Kr complex

An ab initio intermolecular potential energy surface (PES) has been constructed for the benzene-krypton (BKr) van der Waals (vdW) complex. The interaction energy has been calculated at the coupled cluster level of theory with single, double, and perturbatively included triple excitations using different basis sets. As a result, a few analytical PESs of the complex have been determined. They allowed a prediction of the complex structure and its vibrational vdW states. The vibrational energy level pattern exhibits a distinct polyad structure. Comparison of the equilibrium structure, the dipole moment, and vibrational levels of BKr with their experimental counterparts has allowed us to design an optimal basis set composed of a small Dunning’s basis set for the benzene monomer, a larger effective core potential adapted basis set for Kr and additional midbond functions. Such a basis set yields vibrational energy levels that agree very well with the experimental ones as well as with those calculated from the available empirical PES derived from the microwave spectra of the BKr complex. The basis proposed can be applied to larger complexes including Kr because of a reasonable computational cost and accurate results.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Probing the structural and dynamical properties of liquid water with models including non-local electron correlation

Water is a ubiquitous liquid that displays a wide range of anomalous properties and has a delicate structure that challenges experiment and simulation alike. The various intermolecular interactions that play an important role, such as repulsion, polarization, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals interactions, are often difficult to reproduce faithfully in atomistic models. Here, electronic structure theories including all these interactions at equal footing, which requires the inclusion of non-local electron correlation, are used to describe structure and dynamics of bulk liquid water. Isobaric-isothermal (NpT) ensemble simulations based on the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) yield excellent density (0.994 g/ml) and fair radial distribution functions, while various other density functional approximations produce scattered results (0.8-1.2 g/ml). Molecular dynamics simulation in the microcanonical (NVE) ensemble based on Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) yields dynamical properties in the condensed phase, namely, the infrared spectrum and diffusion constant. At the MP2 and RPA levels of theory, ice is correctly predicted to float on water, resolving one of the anomalies as resulting from a delicate balance between van der Waals and hydrogen bonding interactions. For several properties, obtaining quantitative agreement with experiment requires correction for nuclear quantum effects (NQEs), highlighting their importance, for structure, dynamics, and electronic properties. A computed NQE shift of 0.6 eV for the band gap and absorption spectrum illustrates the latter. Giving access to both structure and dynamics of condensed phase systems, non-local electron correlation will increasingly be used to study systems where weak interactions are of paramount importance.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗