Photodissociation of a HCl molecule adsorbed on ice

Generalized CC-TDSCF and LCSA: The system-energy representation

Typical (sub)system-bath quantum dynamical problems are often investigated by means of (approximate) reduced equations of motion. Wavepacket approaches to the dynamics of the whole system have gained momentum in recent years and there is hope that properly designed approximations to the wavefunction will allow one to correctly describe the subsystem evolution. The continuous-configuration time-dependent self-consistent field (CC-TDSCF) and local coherent-state approximation (LCSA) methods, for instance, use a simple Hartree product of bath single-particle-functions for each discrete variable representation (DVR) state introduced in the Hilbert space of the subsystem. Here we focus on the above two methods and replace the DVR states with the eigenstates of the subsystem Hamiltonian, i.e., we adopt an energy-local representation for the subsystem. We find that stable and semiquantitative results are obtained for a number of dissipative problems, at the same (small) computational cost of the original methods. Furthermore, we find that both methods give very similar results, thus suggesting that coherent-states are well suited to describe (local) bath states. As a whole, present results highlight the importance of the system basis-set in the selected-multiconfiguration expansion of the wavefunction. They suggest that accurate and yet computationally cheap methods may be simply obtained from CC-TDSCF/LCSA by letting the subsystem states be variationally optimized.

Interaction of Hydrogen Chloride with Ice Surfaces: The Effects of Grain Size, Surface Roughness, and Surface Disorder

Characterization of the interaction of hydrogen chloride (HCl) with polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) ice particles is essential to understanding the processes responsible for ozone depletion. The interaction of HCl with ice was studied using a coated-wall flow tube with chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) between 5x10(-8) and 10(-4) Torr HCl and between 186 and 223 K, including conditions recently shown to induce quasi-liquid layer (QLL) formation on single crystalline ice samples. Measurements were performed on smooth and rough (vapor-deposited) polycrystalline ice films. A numerical model of the coated-wall flow reactor was used to interpret these results and results of studies on zone-refined ice cylinders with grain sizes on the order of several millimeters (reported elsewhere). We found that HCl adsorption on polycrystalline ice films typically used in laboratory studies under conditions not known to induce surface disordering consists of two modes: one relatively strong mode leading to irreversible adsorption, and one relatively weak binding mode leading to reversible adsorption. We have indirect experimental evidence that these two modes of adsorption correspond to adsorption to sites at crystal faces and those at grain boundaries, but there is not enough information to enable us to conclusively assign each adsorption mode to a type of site. Unlike what was observed in the zone-refined ice study, there was no strong qualitative contrast found between the HCl uptake curves under QLL versus non-QLL conditions for adsorption on smooth and vapor-deposited ices. We also found indirect evidence that HCl hexahydrate formation on ice between 3x10(-7) and 2x10(-6) Torr HCl and between 186 and 190 K is a process involving hydrate nucleation and propagation on the crystal surface, rather than one originating in grain boundaries, as has been suggested for ice formed at lower temperatures. These results underscore the dependence of the HCl-ice interaction on the characteristics of the ice substrate.

Enhanced protonation of cresol red in acidic aqueous solutions caused by freezing

The protonation degree of cresol red (CR) in frozen aqueous solutions at 253 or 77 K, containing various acids (HF, HCl, HNO3, H2SO4, and p-toluenesulfonic acid), sodium hydroxide, NaCl, or NH4Cl, was examined using UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy. CR, a weak organic diacid, has been selected as a model system to study the acid-base interactions at the grain boundaries of ice. The multivariate curve resolution alternating least-squares method was used to determine the number and abundances of chemical species responsible for the overlaying absorption visible spectra measured. The results showed that the extent of CR protonation, enhanced in the solid state by 2-4 orders of magnitude in contrast to the liquid solution, is principally connected to an increase in the local concentration of acids. It was found that this enhancement was not very sensitive to either the freezing rate or the type of acid used and that CR apparently established an acid-base equilibrium prior to solidification. In addition, the presence of inorganic salts, such as NaCl or NH4Cl, is reported to cause a more efficient deprotonation of CR in the former case and an enhanced protonation in the latter case, being well explained by the theory of Bronshteyn and Chernov. CR thus served as an acid-base indicator at the grain boundaries of ice samples. Structural changes in the CR molecule induced by lowering the temperature and a presence of the constraining ice environment were studied by the absorption and 1H NMR spectroscopies. Cryospheric and atmospheric implications concerning the influence of acids and bases on composition and reactivity of ice or snow contaminants were examined.