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Berni S, Scelta D, Fanetti S, Bini R. High pressure behavior of ethylene and water: From clathrate hydrate to polymerization in solid ice mixtures. J Chem Phys 2023; 158:064505. [PMID: 36792521 DOI: 10.1063/5.0137863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Among the ice mixtures that can be found in our universe, those involving ethylene are poorly studied even though ethylene reportedly exists in the presence of water in several astrochemical domains. Here, we report on the chemistry of ethylene and water mixtures in both pressure (0-15 GPa) and temperature (300-370 K) ranges relevant to celestial bodies conditions. The behavior of the binary mixture has been tracked, starting from the ethylene clathrate hydrate and following its evolution through two different crystalline phases up to 2.10 GPa, where it decomposes into a solid mixture of water ice and crystalline ethylene. The pressure and temperature evolution of this mixture has been studied up to the complete transformation of ethylene into polyethylene and compared with that of the pure hydrocarbon, reporting here for the first time its spectroscopic features upon compression. The spectroscopic analysis of the recovered polymers from the ice mixtures provided hints about the reactivity of the monomer under the environmental stress exerted by the water network. The results of this study are expected to be significant in a variety of fields ranging from astrochemistry to material science and also to fundamental chemistry, particularly regarding the study and modelization of the behavior of complex mixtures.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Berni
- LENS, European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, Via N. Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
| | - D Scelta
- LENS, European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, Via N. Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
| | - S Fanetti
- LENS, European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, Via N. Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
| | - R Bini
- LENS, European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, Via N. Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
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Romi S, Fanetti S, Alabarse F, Mio AM, Haines J, Bini R. Towards custom built double core carbon nanothreads using stilbene and pseudo-stilbene type systems. NANOSCALE 2022; 14:4614-4625. [PMID: 35266485 DOI: 10.1039/d1nr08188h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Until recently, saturated carbon nanothreads were the missing tile in the world of low-dimension carbon nanomaterials. These one-dimensional fully saturated polymers possess superior mechanical properties by combining high tensile strength with flexibility and resilience. They can be obtained by compressing aromatic and heteroaromatic crystals above 15 GPa exploiting the anisotropic stress that can be achieved by the diamond anvil cell technique. Recently, double-core nanothreads were synthesized by compressing azobenzene crystals, achieving the remarkable result of preserving the azo group as a linker of the resulting double thread. Herein, we demonstrate the generality of these findings through the synthesis of double carbon nanothreads from trans stilbene and azobenzene-stilbene mixed crystals. Employment of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray diffraction enabled a comprehensive characterization of the reactivity identifying threshold conditions, kinetics and structure-reaction relationship. In particular, the reaction is anticipated by a phase transition characterized by a sudden increase of the monoclinic angle and a collapse along the b axis direction. Large bidimensional crystalline areas extending several tens of nanometers are evidenced by transmission electron microscopy also confirming the monoclinic unit cell derived from X-ray diffraction data in which threads possessing the polymer 1 structure, as suggested by density functional theory calculations, are packed. The most exciting result of this study is the demonstration of viable synthesis of double nanothreads where the number and the nature of chromophoric groups linking the threads can be tuned by preparing starting crystals of desired composition, thanks to the isomorphism typical of the pseudo-stilbene molecules. This is extremely important in tailoring nanothreads with tunable optical properties and an adjustable band gap, also exploiting the possibility of introducing substituents in the phenyl groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastiano Romi
- LENS, European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, Via N. Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
| | - Samuele Fanetti
- LENS, European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, Via N. Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
- ICCOM-CNR, Istituto di Chimica dei Composti OrganoMetallici, Via Madonna del Piano 10, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy.
| | - Frederico Alabarse
- ELETTRA, Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A, in AREA Science Park, 34149 Basovizza, Trieste, Italy
| | - Antonio M Mio
- IMM-CNR, Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi, VIII Strada 5 - Zona Industriale, 95121 Catania, Italy
| | - Julien Haines
- Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier, France
| | - Roberto Bini
- LENS, European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, Via N. Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
- ICCOM-CNR, Istituto di Chimica dei Composti OrganoMetallici, Via Madonna del Piano 10, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy.
- Dipartimento di Chimica "Ugo Schiff", Università di Firenze, Via della Lastruccia 3, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
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