1
|
Li WL, Burkhardt J. AnB 8-: borozene complexes with monovalent actinide. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:16091-16095. [PMID: 38780310 DOI: 10.1039/d4cp01646g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
In light of recently reported monovalent lanthanide in borozene complexes LnB8- (Ln = La, Pr, Tb, Tm, Yb), the corresponding AnB8- (An = Ac, Pa, Bk, Md, No) actinide species within the same group were theoretically investigated in respect of oxidation state, stability, electronic structure and chemical bonding pattern. Our investigations reveal the feasibility of actinides, especially for the late actinide borozene compounds (BkB8-, MdB8-, NoB8-) adopting a monovalent oxidation state of +I, a phenomenon fine-tuned by the doubly aromatic borozene B82-. Early actinides (AcB8-, PaB8-) however exhibit a tendency towards higher trivalent oxidation states.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wan-Lu Li
- Department of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
- Program of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Jordan Burkhardt
- Department of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Zheng Z, Zheng X, Jiang J, Zhang Q, Li P, Li C, Gu Q, Wei L, Konstantinov K, Yang W, Chen Y, Wang J. Low-Overpotential Rechargeable Na-CO 2 Batteries Enabled by an Oxygen-Vacancy-Rich Cobalt Oxide Catalyst. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2024; 16:17657-17665. [PMID: 38531381 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c01682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
Rechargeable sodium-carbon dioxide (Na-CO2) batteries have been proposed as a promising CO2 utilization technique, which could realize CO2 reduction and generate electricity at the same time. They suffer, however, from several daunting problems, including sluggish CO2 reduction and evolution kinetics, large polarization, and poor cycling stability. In this study, a rambutan-like Co3O4 hollow sphere catalyst with abundant oxygen vacancies was synthesized and employed as an air cathode for Na-CO2 batteries. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the abundant oxygen vacancies on Co3O4 possess superior CO2 binding capability, accelerating CO2 electroreduction, and thereby improving the discharge capacity. In addition, the oxygen vacancies also contribute to decrease the CO2 decomposition free energy barrier, which is beneficial for reducing the overpotential further and improving round-trip efficiency. Benefiting from the excellent catalytic ability of rambutan-like Co3O4 hollow spheres with abundant oxygen vacancies, the fabricated Na-CO2 batteries exhibit extraordinary electrochemical performance with a large discharge capacity of 8371.3 mA h g-1, a small overpotential of 1.53 V at a current density of 50 mA g-1, and good cycling stability over 85 cycles. These results provide new insights into the rational design of air cathode catalysts to accelerate practical applications of rechargeable Na-CO2 batteries and potentially Na-air batteries.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zhi Zheng
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, New South Wales 2500, Australia
- School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Darlington, New South Wales 2006, Australia
| | - Xiaobo Zheng
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, New South Wales 2500, Australia
| | - Jicheng Jiang
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, New South Wales 2500, Australia
| | - Qi Zhang
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, New South Wales 2500, Australia
| | - Peng Li
- School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
| | - Can Li
- College of Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Qinfen Gu
- The Australian Synchrotron (ANSTO), 800 Blackburn Road, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia
| | - Li Wei
- School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Darlington, New South Wales 2006, Australia
| | - Konstantin Konstantinov
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, New South Wales 2500, Australia
| | - Weishen Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023, China
| | - Yuan Chen
- School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Darlington, New South Wales 2006, Australia
| | - Jiazhao Wang
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, New South Wales 2500, Australia
- Institute for Carbon Neutralization,College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325035, China
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Chen DH, Vankova N, Jha G, Yu X, Wang Y, Lin L, Kirschhöfer F, Greifenstein R, Redel E, Heine T, Wöll C. Ultrastrong Electron-Phonon Coupling in Uranium-Organic Frameworks Leading to Inverse Luminescence Temperature Dependence. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2024; 63:e202318559. [PMID: 38153004 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202318559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/29/2023]
Abstract
Electron-phonon interactions, crucial in condensed matter, are rarely seen in Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). Detecting these interactions typically involves analyzing luminescence in lanthanide- or actinide-based compounds. Prior studies on Ln- and Ac-based MOFs at high temperatures revealed additional peaks, but these were too faint for thorough analysis. In our research, we fabricated a high-quality, crystalline uranium-based MOF (KIT-U-1) thin film using a layer-by-layer method. Under UV light, this film showed two distinct "hot bands," indicating a strong electron-phonon interaction. At 77 K, these bands were absent, but at 300 K, a new emission band appeared with half the intensity of the main luminescence. Surprisingly, a second hot band emerged above 320 K, deviating from previous findings in rare-earth compounds. We conducted a detailed ab-initio analysis employing time-dependent density functional theory to understand this unusual behaviour and to identify the lattice vibration responsible for the strong electron-phonon coupling. The KIT-U-1 film's hot-band emission was then utilized to create a highly sensitive, single-compound optical thermometer. This underscores the potential of high-quality MOF thin films in exploiting the unique luminescence of lanthanides and actinides for advanced applications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dong-Hui Chen
- Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Nina Vankova
- Fakultät für Chemie und Lebensmittelchemie, TU Dresden, Bergstraße 66c, 01069, Dresden, Germany
| | - Gautam Jha
- Fakultät für Chemie und Lebensmittelchemie, TU Dresden, Bergstraße 66c, 01069, Dresden, Germany
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institut für Ressourcenökologie, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328, Dresden, Germany
| | - Xiaojuan Yu
- Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Yuemin Wang
- Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Ling Lin
- Institute of Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Frank Kirschhöfer
- Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Raphael Greifenstein
- Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Engelbert Redel
- Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Thomas Heine
- Fakultät für Chemie und Lebensmittelchemie, TU Dresden, Bergstraße 66c, 01069, Dresden, Germany
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institut für Ressourcenökologie, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328, Dresden, Germany
- Forschungsstelle Leipzig, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Permoserstraße 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christof Wöll
- Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Chu ZQ, Zhu RY, Su J. Dynamic dissolution of Cm 3+ ions incorporated at the calcite-water interface: an ab initio molecular dynamics simulation study. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:7545-7553. [PMID: 38357997 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp05611b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/16/2024]
Abstract
The stability of actinide-mineral solid solution in a water environment is critical for assessing the safety of nuclear-waste geological repositories and studying actinide migration in natural systems. However, the dissolution behavior of actinide ions incorporated at the mineral-water interface is still unclear at the atomic level. Herein, we present metadynamics simulations of the reaction pathways, thermodynamics and kinetics of trivalent curium ions (Cm3+) dissolving from calcite surfaces. Cm3+ ions incorporated in different calcite surfaces (i.e., terrace and stepped surfaces) with distinct coordination environments have different reaction pathways, free energy barriers and free energy changes. We found that Cm dissolution from a stepped surface is more favorable than that from a terrace surface, both thermodynamically and kinetically. In addition, water molecules seem to promote the detachment of curium ions from the surface by exerting a pulling force via water coordination with Cm3+ and a pushing force via proton migration to the surface layer and water diffusion in the vacant Cm site. Thus, the findings from this work prove to be a milestone in revealing the dynamic dissolution mechanism of trivalent actinides from minerals and would also help predict the dissolution behaviors of other metal ions at the solid-water interface in chemical and environmental sciences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zhao-Qin Chu
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P. R. China.
| | - Ru-Yu Zhu
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P. R. China.
| | - Jing Su
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P. R. China.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Li WL, Chen K, Rossomme E, Head-Gordon M, Head-Gordon T. Greater transferability and accuracy of norm-conserving pseudopotentials using nonlinear core corrections. Chem Sci 2023; 14:10934-10943. [PMID: 37829021 PMCID: PMC10566506 DOI: 10.1039/d3sc03709f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
We present an investigation into the transferability of pseudopotentials (PPs) with a nonlinear core correction (NLCC) using the Goedecker, Teter, and Hutter (GTH) protocol across a range of pure GGA, meta-GGA and hybrid functionals, and their impact on thermochemical and non-thermochemical properties. The GTH-NLCC PP for the PBE density functional demonstrates remarkable transferability to the PBE0 and ωB97X-V exchange-correlation functionals, and relative to no NLCC, improves agreement significantly for thermochemical benchmarks compared to all-electron calculations. On the other hand, the B97M-rV meta-GGA functional performs poorly with the PBE-derived GTH-NLCC PP, which is mitigated by reoptimizing the NLCC parameters for this specific functional. The findings reveal that atomization energies exhibit the greatest improvements from use of the NLCC, which thus provides an important correction needed for covalent interactions relevant to applications involving chemical reactivity. Finally we test the NLCC-GTH PPs when combined with medium-size TZV2P molecularly optimized (MOLOPT) basis sets which are typically utilized in condensed phase simulations, and show that they lead to consistently good results when compared to all-electron calculations for atomization energies, ionization potentials, barrier heights, and non-covalent interactions, but lead to somewhat larger errors for electron affinities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wan-Lu Li
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry USA
- Department of Chemistry USA
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory USA
- Department of Nanoengineering and Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego La Jolla California 92093 USA
| | - Kaixuan Chen
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry USA
- Department of Chemistry USA
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory USA
| | - Elliot Rossomme
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry USA
- Department of Chemistry USA
| | - Martin Head-Gordon
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry USA
- Department of Chemistry USA
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory USA
| | - Teresa Head-Gordon
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry USA
- Department of Chemistry USA
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory USA
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley Berkeley California 94720 USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Yang Y, Lan Y, Liu Q, Zhu L, Hao X, Zhou J, Yang S, Tian G. A computational study on the coordination modes and electron absorption spectra of the complexes U(iv) with N, N, N', N'-tetramethyl-diglycolamide and anions. RSC Adv 2023; 13:23947-23954. [PMID: 37577087 PMCID: PMC10413335 DOI: 10.1039/d3ra04206e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Lipophilic N,N,N',N'-tetraalkyl-diglycolamides (TRDGAs) are promising extractants for actinides separation in spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. Usually, in the extracted complexes of actinide and lanthanide ions of various oxidation states, the metal ions are completely surrounded by 2 or 3 TRDGA molecules, and the counter anions do not directly coordinate with them. In contrast, the extracted complexes of U(iv) from different media presenting different absorption spectra indicate that the anions (Cl- and NO3-) are directly involved in the coordination with U(iv) in the first inner sphere. Based on this exceptional observation in solvent extraction, taking the coordination of U(iv) with N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-diglycolamide (TMDGA, the smallest analogue of TRDGA) as the research object, we mimic the behaviours of counterions (Cl- and NO3-) and the water molecule during coordination of TMDGA with U(iv), especially combining with the simulation of the absorption spectra. We demonstrate that during the complexing of TMDGA to U(iv), the counterion Cl- will occupy one coordination number in the inner coordination sphere, and NO3- will occupy two by bidentate type; however, the ubiquitous water cannot squeeze in the inner coordination sphere. In addition, the coordination of Cl- and NO3- is proved to favour the extraction with the lower binding energy. Moreover, the simulation of absorption spectra is in good agreement with the observation from experiments, further verifying the aforementioned conclusion. This work in some way will provide guidance to improve the computation methods in research of actinides by mimicking the absorption spectra of actinide ions in different complexes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yating Yang
- Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy Beijing 102413 China
| | - Youshi Lan
- Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy Beijing 102413 China
| | - Qian Liu
- Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy Beijing 102413 China
| | - Liyang Zhu
- Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy Beijing 102413 China
| | - Xuan Hao
- Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy Beijing 102413 China
| | - Jin Zhou
- Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy Beijing 102413 China
| | - Suliang Yang
- Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy Beijing 102413 China
| | - Guoxin Tian
- Department of Radiochemistry, China Institute of Atomic Energy Beijing 102413 China
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Xu XC, Song JJ, Hu HS. Enhanced Hydrogen Bonds of the (H 2O) n ( n = 4-8) Clusters Confined in Uranyl Peroxide Cluster Na 20(UO 2) 20(O 2) 30. Inorg Chem 2023. [PMID: 37487687 DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c01269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/26/2023]
Abstract
Water is a basic resource and an essential component of living organisms. It often exhibits some novel properties under confinement. The water clusters (H2O)n (n = 4-8) confined in the cavity of uranyl peroxide cluster Na20(UO2)20(O2)30 (U20) have been computationally investigated by using ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations in this study. The results show that the confined water clusters can form hydrogen bonds with the internal oxygen atoms (Ouranyl) of U20, and their conformations changed significantly. The average lengths (2.553-2.645 Å) of hydrogen bonds in confined (H2O)n are shorter than those (2.731-2.841 Å) in the corresponding free water clusters. Moreover, these confined hydrogen bonds show better hydrogen bond patterns according to the quantified indices. The natural bond orbital (NBO) calculations determine that there is electron transferring from the U20 to its interior (H2O)n. It is the main reason for enhancing hydrogen bond interactions among the confined water molecules because their oxygen atoms are more negatively charged and their hydrogen atoms are more positively charged. The quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and interacting quantum atoms (IQA) analyses indicate that the confined hydrogen bonds are more covalent, based on the significant electron density ρ(r) and local energy density H(r) at the bond critical points (BCPs), and the stronger energies of interatomic exchange interactions (Vxc). These findings may help to promote the communication of confined water clusters and enrich the understating of confined hydrogen bonds.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Cheng Xu
- Department of Chemistry & Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084, China
| | - Jun-Jie Song
- Department of Chemistry & Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084, China
| | - Han-Shi Hu
- Department of Chemistry & Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084, China
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Rossomme E, Cunha LA, Li W, Chen K, McIsaac AR, Head-Gordon T, Head-Gordon M. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Pseudopotential Inconsistency Errors in Molecular Applications of Density Functional Theory. J Chem Theory Comput 2023; 19:2827-2841. [PMID: 37156013 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
The pseudopotential (PP) approximation is one of the most common techniques in computational chemistry. Despite its long history, the development of custom PPs has not tracked with the explosion of different density functional approximations (DFAs). As a result, the use of PPs with exchange/correlation models for which they were not developed is widespread, although this practice is known to be theoretically unsound. The extent of PP inconsistency errors (PPIEs) associated with this practice has not been systematically explored across the types of energy differences commonly evaluated in chemical applications. We evaluate PPIEs for a number of PPs and DFAs across 196 chemically relevant systems of both transition-metal and main-group elements, as represented by the W4-11, TMC34, and S22 data sets. Near the complete basis set limit, these PPs are found to cleanly approach all-electron (AE) results for noncovalent interactions but introduce root-mean-squared errors (RMSEs) upwards of 15 kcal mol-1 into predictions of covalent bond energies for a number of popular DFAs. We achieve significant improvements through the use of empirical atom- and DFA-specific PP corrections, indicating considerable systematicity of the PPIEs. The results of this work have implications for chemical modeling in both molecular contexts and for DFA design, which we discuss.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elliot Rossomme
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Leonardo A Cunha
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Wanlu Li
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Kaixuan Chen
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Alexandra R McIsaac
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Teresa Head-Gordon
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Martin Head-Gordon
- Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Zhang H, Li A, Li K, Wang Z, Xu X, Wang Y, Sheridan MV, Hu HS, Xu C, Alekseev EV, Zhang Z, Yan P, Cao K, Chai Z, Albrecht-Schönzart TE, Wang S. Ultrafiltration separation of Am(VI)-polyoxometalate from lanthanides. Nature 2023; 616:482-487. [PMID: 37076728 PMCID: PMC10115636 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05840-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 39.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2022] [Accepted: 02/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/21/2023]
Abstract
Partitioning of americium from lanthanides (Ln) present in used nuclear fuel plays a key role in the sustainable development of nuclear energy1-3. This task is extremely challenging because thermodynamically stable Am(III) and Ln(III) ions have nearly identical ionic radii and coordination chemistry. Oxidization of Am(III) to Am(VI) produces AmO22+ ions distinct with Ln(III) ions, which has the potential to facilitate separations in principle. However, the rapid reduction of Am(VI) back to Am(III) by radiolysis products and organic reagents required for the traditional separation protocols including solvent and solid extractions hampers practical redox-based separations. Herein, we report a nanoscale polyoxometalate (POM) cluster with a vacancy site compatible with the selective coordination of hexavalent actinides (238U, 237Np, 242Pu and 243Am) over trivalent lanthanides in nitric acid media. To our knowledge, this cluster is the most stable Am(VI) species in aqueous media observed so far. Ultrafiltration-based separation of nanoscale Am(VI)-POM clusters from hydrated lanthanide ions by commercially available, fine-pored membranes enables the development of a once-through americium/lanthanide separation strategy that is highly efficient and rapid, does not involve any organic components and requires minimal energy input.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hailong Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Ao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Kai Li
- State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Zhipeng Wang
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaocheng Xu
- Department of Chemistry and Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Yaxing Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
| | - Matthew V Sheridan
- State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Han-Shi Hu
- Department of Chemistry and Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Chao Xu
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
| | | | - Zhenyi Zhang
- Bruker (Beijing) Scientific Technology Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China
| | - Pu Yan
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of High-resolution Electron Microscopy, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
| | - Kecheng Cao
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of High-resolution Electron Microscopy, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhifang Chai
- State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Thomas E Albrecht-Schönzart
- Department of Chemistry and Nuclear Science & Engineering Center, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA.
| | - Shuao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Chu ZQ, Zhu RY, Su J. Theoretical insights into the coordination structures, stabilities and electronic spectra of Cm 3+ species at the gibbsite-water interface: A computational study combing ab initio molecular dynamics and wave function theory. J Colloid Interface Sci 2023; 640:727-736. [PMID: 36898179 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2023] [Revised: 02/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2023]
Abstract
The information of structure and stability of actinide species is key to understand the sorption mechanism of actinides at mineral-water interface. Such information is approximately derived from experimental spectroscopic measurements and needs to be accurately obtained by a direct atomic-scale modelling. Herein, systematic first-principles calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations are carried out to study the coordination structures and absorption energies of Cm(III) surface complexes at gibbsite-water interface. Eleven representative complexing sites are investigated. The most stable Cm3+ sorption species are predicted to be a tridentate surface complex in weakly acidic/neutral solution condition and a bidentate one in the alkaline solution condition. Moreover, luminescence spectra of the Cm3+ aqua ion and the two surface complexes are predicted based on the high-accuracy ab initio wave function theory (WFT). The results give a gradually decreasing emission energy in good agreement with experimental observation of a red shift of peak maximum with pH increasing from 5 to 11. This work is a comprehensive computational study involving AIMD and ab initio WFT methods to gain the coordination structures, stabilities, and electronic spectra of actinide sorption species at the mineral-water interface, thus providing important theoretical support for geological disposal of actinide waste.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zhao-Qin Chu
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, PR China
| | - Ru-Yu Zhu
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, PR China
| | - Jing Su
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, PR China.
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Lu JB, Jiang XL, Hu HS, Li J. Norm-Conserving 4f-in-Core Pseudopotentials and Basis Sets Optimized for Trivalent Lanthanides (Ln = Ce-Lu). J Chem Theory Comput 2023; 19:82-96. [PMID: 36512750 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c00922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
We present here a set of scalar-relativistic norm-conserving 4f-in-core pseudopotentials, together with complementary valence-shell Gaussian basis sets, for the lanthanide (Ln) series (Ce-Lu). The Goedecker, Teter, and Hutter (GTH) formalism is adopted with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange-correlation Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) functional. The 4f-in-core pseudopotentials are built through attributing 4f-subconfiguration 4fn (n = 1-14) for Ln (Ln = Ce-Lu) into the atomic core region, making it possible to circumvent the difficulty of the description of the open 4fn valence shell. A wide variety of computational benchmarks and tests have been carried out on lanthanide systems including Ln3+-containing molecular complexes, aqueous solutions, and bulk solids to validate the accuracy, reliability, and efficiency of the optimized 4f-in-core GTH pseudopotentials and basis sets. The 4f-in-core GTH pseudopotentials successfully replicate the main features of lanthanide structural chemistry and reaction energetics, particularly for nonredox reactions. The chemical bonding features and solvation shells, hydrolysis energetics, acidity constants, and solid-state properties of selected lanthanide systems are also discussed in detail by utilizing these new 4f-in-core GTH pseudopotentials. This work bridges the idea of keeping highly localized 4f electrons in the atomic core and efficient pseudopotential formalism of GTH, thus providing a highly efficient approach for studying lanthanide chemistry in multi-scale modeling of constituent-wise and structurally complicated systems, including electronic structures of the condensed phase and first-principles molecular dynamics simulations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jun-Bo Lu
- Department of Chemistry and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Catalytic Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Xue-Lian Jiang
- Department of Chemistry and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Catalytic Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Han-Shi Hu
- Department of Chemistry and Engineering Research Center of Advanced Rare-Earth Materials of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Jun Li
- Department of Chemistry and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Catalytic Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.,Department of Chemistry and Engineering Research Center of Advanced Rare-Earth Materials of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Actinides in complex reactive media: A combined ab initio molecular dynamics and machine learning analytics study of transuranic ions in molten salts. J Mol Liq 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2022.120115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
|
13
|
Wang Z, Lu JB, Dong X, Yan Q, Feng X, Hu HS, Wang S, Chen J, Li J, Xu C. Ultra-Efficient Americium/Lanthanide Separation through Oxidation State Control. J Am Chem Soc 2022; 144:6383-6389. [PMID: 35353513 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c00594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Lanthanide/actinide separation is a worldwide challenge for atomic energy and nuclear waste treatment. Separation of americium (Am), a critical actinide element in the nuclear fuel cycle, from lanthanides (Ln) is highly desirable for minimizing the long-term radiotoxicity of nuclear waste, yet it is extremely challenging given the chemical similarity between trivalent Am(III) and Ln(III). Selective oxidation of Am(III) to a higher oxidation state (OS) could facilitate this separation, but so far, it is far from satisfactory for practical application as a result of the unstable nature of Am in a high OS. Herein, we find a novel strategy to generate stable pentavalent Am (Am(V)) through coordination of Am(III) with a diglycolamide ligand and oxidation with Bi(V) species in the presence of an organic solvent. This strategy leads to efficient stabilization of Am(V) and an extraordinarily high separation factor (>104) of Am from Ln through one single contact in solvent extraction, thereby opening a new avenue to study the high-OS chemistry of Am and fulfill the crucial task of Ln/Am separation in the nuclear fuel cycle. The synergistic coordination and oxidation process is found to occur in the organic solvent, and the mechanism has been well elucidated by quantum-theoretical modeling.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zhipeng Wang
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Jun-Bo Lu
- Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Xue Dong
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Qiang Yan
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Xiaogui Feng
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Han-Shi Hu
- Department of Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Shuao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
| | - Jing Chen
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Jun Li
- Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.,Department of Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Chao Xu
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Zhao XK, Cao CS, Liu JC, Lu JB, Li J, Hu HS. Theoretical Prediction of Graphene-like 2D Uranyl Material with p-Orbital Antiferromagnetism. Chem Sci 2022; 13:8518-8525. [PMID: 35974750 PMCID: PMC9337721 DOI: 10.1039/d2sc02017c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Versatile graphene-like two-dimensional materials with s-, p- and d-block elements have aroused significant interests because of their extensive applications while there is a lack of f-block one. Herein we report...
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Kun Zhao
- Department of Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China
| | - Chang-Su Cao
- Department of Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China
| | - Jin-Cheng Liu
- Department of Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China
| | - Jun-Bo Lu
- Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology Shenzhen 518055 China
| | - Jun Li
- Department of Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China
- Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology Shenzhen 518055 China
| | - Han-Shi Hu
- Department of Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Ilyas M, Mian SA, Rauf A, Ahmed E, Rahman G, Sannyal A, Jang J. Stimulated reversal of the strong adhesion of catechol onto a silica surface. B KOREAN CHEM SOC 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/bkcs.12454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Ilyas
- Department of Physics University of Peshawar Peshawar Pakistan
| | | | - Abdur Rauf
- Department of Physics Islamia College University Peshawar Pakistan
| | - Ejaz Ahmed
- Department of Physics Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Pakistan
| | - Gul Rahman
- Institute of Chemical Sciences University of Peshawar Peshawar Pakistan
| | - Arindam Sannyal
- Department of Nanoenergy Engineering Pusan National University Busan South Korea
| | - Joonkyung Jang
- Department of Nanoenergy Engineering Pusan National University Busan South Korea
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Nguyen MT, Rousseau R, Paviet PD, Glezakou VA. Actinide Molten Salts: A Machine-Learning Potential Molecular Dynamics Study. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2021; 13:53398-53408. [PMID: 34494435 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c11358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Actinide molten salts represent a class of important materials in nuclear energy. Understanding them at a molecular level is critical for the proper and optimal design of relevant technological applications. Yet, owing to the complexity of electronic structure due to the 5f orbitals, computational studies of heavy elements in condensed phases using ab initio potentials to study the structure and dynamics of these elements embedded in molten salts are difficult. This lack of efficient computational protocols makes it difficult to obtain information on properties that require extensive statistical sampling like transport properties. To tackle this problem, we adopted a machine-learning approach to study ThCl4-NaCl and UCl3-NaCl binary systems. The machine-learning potential with the density functional theory accuracy allows us to obtain long molecular dynamics trajectories (ns) for large systems (103 atoms) at a considerably low computing cost, thereby efficiently gaining information about their bonding structures, thermodynamics, and dynamics at a range of temperatures. We observed a considerable change in the coordination environments of actinide elements and their characteristic coordination sphere lifetime. Our study also suggests that actinides in molten salts may not follow well-known entropy-scaling laws.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Manh-Thuong Nguyen
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States
| | - Roger Rousseau
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States
| | - Patricia D Paviet
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States
| | | |
Collapse
|
17
|
Li WL, Chen K, Rossomme E, Head-Gordon M, Head-Gordon T. Optimized Pseudopotentials and Basis Sets for Semiempirical Density Functional Theory for Electrocatalysis Applications. J Phys Chem Lett 2021; 12:10304-10309. [PMID: 34653336 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c02918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
A complete set of Goedecker, Teter, and Hutter (GTH) norm-conserving pseudopotentials (PPs) have been optimized, in conjunction with molecular optimized (MOLOPT) basis sets, for both the B97M-rV and ωB97X-V density functionals for members of the main-group elements and 3d and noble metals. The resulting small-core PPs and corresponding DZVP, TZVP, and TZV2P basis sets yield notable improvements compared to the original PBE defaults when validated against all electron calculations for redox reaction energies and geometries, binding energies, and vibrational Stark effects for metal monocarbonyls in vacuum. Further validation of the optimized PP/MOLOPT basis set combinations was performed using ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and shows greatly improved agreement with experimental trends for metal surface relaxations and the adsorption behavior of CO on solid metal surfaces.
Collapse
|