Computational Study of the Geometry and Properties of the Metcars Ti8C12 and Mo8C12

Tailoring Titanium Carbide Clusters for New Materials: from Met-Cars to Carbon-Doped Superatoms

Tailoring materials with prescribed properties and regular structures is a critical and challenging research topic. Early transition metals were found to form supermagic M8C12 metallocarbohedrenes (Met-Cars); however, stable metal carbides are not limited to this common stoichiometry. Utilizing self-developed deep-ultraviolet laser ionization mass spectrometry, here, we report a strategy to generate new titanium carbides by reacting pure Tin clusters with acetylene. Interestingly, two products corresponding to Ti17C2 and Ti19C10 exhibit superior abundances in addition to the Ti8C12 Met-Cars. Using global-minimum search, the structures of Ti17C2 and Ti19C10 are determined to be an ellipsoidal D4d and a rod-shaped D5h geometry, respectively, both with carbon-capped Ti4C moieties and superatomic features. We illustrate the electronic structures and bonding nature in these carbon-doped superatoms concerning their enhanced stability and local aromaticity, shedding light on a new class of metal-carbide nanomaterials with atomic precision.

Role of metcar on the adsorption and activation of carbon dioxide: a DFT study

Metallocarbohedrenes or metcars belong to one of the classes of stable nanoclusters having a specific stoichiometry. In spite of the available theoretical and experimental studies, the structure of pristine Ti8C12 metcar is still uncertain. We study the geometric structure of a titanium metcar, Ti8C12, together with its electronic properties and chemical activity towards adsorption and activation of CO2 molecule by means of density functional theory. Our results suggest that the CO2 molecule is strongly adsorbed and undergoes a significantly high degree of activation onto the Ti8C12 metcar. The migration of charge from titanium metcar to CO2 molecule attributes the high degree of activation of this molecule. In the infrared vibrational spectra for CO2 molecule adsorbed onto Ti8C12, we find a new signal which is absent in the corresponding spectra for gaseous CO2. In addition to adsorption energy, we also estimate the energy barrier for the dissociation of CO2 molecule to CO and O fragments on a Ti8C12 cluster. As a whole, this work reveals the ground state geometry of Ti8C12 metcar and highlights the role of this metcar in CO2 adsorption and activation, which are the key steps in designing potential catalysts for CO2 capture and its conversion to industrially valuable chemicals.

Ti12C68: A stable T h -symmetry hollow cage

A stable T h -symmetry Ti12C68 cage was systemically investigated using density functional theory. The structure of Ti12C68 is a hollow cage with twelve TiC13 subunit of three pentagons and one hexagon. The calculated frequencies are in the range 95.1 cm-1-1423.9 cm-1. There are no imaginary frequencies, showing its kinetic stability. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that the topological structure of cage-like Ti12C68 cluster was well maintained when the effective temperature is up to 1139 K. The natural bond orbitals analysis shows that the d orbit of Ti atoms form four σ bonds with the neighboring four carbon atoms in each TiC13 subunit playing an important role in the cluster stability. The molecular frontier orbitals analysis indicates that Ti12C68 cage has a narrow HOMO-LUMO gap with metal-like property. It would be expected to enrich the species of hollow metal carbide clusters.

Application of topological analysis of the electron localization function to the complexes of molybdenum carbide nanoparticles with unsaturated hydrocarbons

The catalytic transformation of the heavy aromatics in bitumen into lighter components is the key to the upgrading and refining of the oil sands. To understand the chemical bonding in molybdenum carbide nanoparticle (MCNP) catalysts and the chemisorption bonds between the MCNPs and unsaturated hydrocarbons, the topological analysis of the electron localization function was applied to various MCNPs and their complexes with unsaturated hydrocarbons. For some of the smaller complexes, comparisons are made with the atoms in molecules approach, including the calculation of delocalization indices. The results are interpreted in the Lewis bonding scheme. It was found that the Mo–C bonding can be highly ionic in cases like Mo8C12 and MoC but shows significant covalent character in Mo2C, Mo3C, and Mo28C14. The chemisorption bonds between hydrocarbons and the MCNPs involve electron sharing of various types with strong covalent character. The strong three– or four–center interactions determine the adsorption configurations of the hydrocarbons on the MCNPs. Derivatives of benzene show some different bonding features, which depend strongly on the substituent or the heteroatom.

Study of Proton Coupled Electron Transfer in a Biomimetic Dimanganese Water Oxidation Catalyst with Terminal Water Ligands

The oxomanganese complex [H(2)O(terpy)Mn(III)(μ-O)(2)Mn(IV)(terpy)H(2)O](3+) (1, terpy = 2,2':6-2″-terpyridine) is a biomimetic model of the oxygen evolving complex of photosystem II with terminal water ligands. When bound to TiO(2) surfaces, 1 is activated by primary oxidants (e.g., Ce(4+)(aq), or oxone in acetate buffers) to catalyze the oxidation of water yielding O(2) evolution [G. Li et al. Energy Environ. Sci. 2, 230-238 (2009)]. The activation is thought to involve oxidation of the inorganic core [Mn(III)(μ-O)(2)Mn(IV)](3+) to generate the [Mn(IV)(μ-O)(2)Mn(IV)](4+) state 1(ox) first and then the highly reactive Mn oxyl species Mn(IV)O(•) through proton coupled electron transfer (PCET). Here, we investigate the step 1 → 1(ox) as compared to the analogous conversion in an oxomanganese complex without terminal water ligands, the [(bpy)(2) Mn (III) (μ-O)(2) Mn (IV) (bpy)(2)](3+) complex (2, bpy = 2,2'-bipyridyl). We characterize the oxidation in terms of free energy calculations of redox potentials and pKa's as directly compared to cyclic voltammogram measurements. We find that the pKa's of terminal water ligands depend strongly on the oxidation states of the Mn centers, changing by ~13 pH units (i.e., from 14 to 1) during the III, IV→IV, IV transition. Furthermore, we find that the oxidation potential of 1 is strongly dependent on pH (in contrast to the pH-independent redox potential of 2) as well as by coordination of Lewis base moieties (e.g., carboxylate groups) that competitively bind to Mn by exchange with terminal water ligands. The reported analysis of ligand binding free energies, pKa's and redox potentials indicates that the III, IV→IV, IV oxidation of 1 in the presence of acetate (AcO(-)) involves the following PCET: [H(2)O(terpy)Mn(III)(μ-O)(2)Mn(IV)(terpy)AcO](2+) → [HO(terpy)Mn(IV)(μ-O)(2)Mn(IV)(terpy)AcO](2+) + H(+) + e(-).

Characterization of proton coupled electron transfer in a biomimetic oxomanganese complex: Evaluation of the DFT B3LYP level of theory

The capabilities and limitations of the Becke-3-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) density functional theory (DFT) for modeling proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) in the mixed-valence oxomanganese complex 1 [(bpy)(2)Mn(III)(mu-O)(2)Mn(IV)(bpy)(2)](3+) (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridyl) are analyzed. Complex 1 serves as a prototypical synthetic model for studies of redox processes analogous to those responsible for water oxidation in the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PSII). DFT B3LYP free energy calculations of redox potentials and pKa's are obtained according to the thermodynamic cycle formalism applied in conjunction with a continuum solvation model. We find that the pKa's of the oxo-ligands depend strongly on the oxidation states of the complex, changing by approximately 10 pH units (i.e., from pH~2 to pH~12) upon III,IV-->III,III reduction of complex 1. These computational results are consistent with the experimental pKa's determined by solution magnetic susceptibility and near-IR spectroscopy as well as with the pH dependence of the redox potential reported by cyclic voltammogram measurements, suggesting that the III,IV-->III,III reduction of complex 1 is coupled to protonation of the di-mu-oxo bridge as follows: [(bpy)(2)Mn(III)(mu-O)(2) Mn(IV)(bpy)(2)](3+)+H(+)+e(-)-->[(bpy)(2)Mn(III)(mu-O)(mu-OH)Mn(III)(bpy)(2)](3+). It is thus natural to expect that analogous redox processes might strongly modulate the pKa's of oxo and hydroxo/water ligands in the OEC of PSII, leading to deprotonation of the OEC upon oxidation state transitions.

A density-functional study of the structural, electronic, magnetic, and vibrational properties of Ti8C12 metallocarbohedrynes

Calculations are presented for the structural, electronic, and vibrational properties of the different Ti8C12 metallocarbohedrynes. (Please note that we adopt the name "metallocarbohedrynes" instead of "metallocarbohedrenes" to denote the acetylenic nature of C2 units in this class of clusters demonstrated by several contributions in literature.) The density-functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed with the all-electron projector augmented-wave method and generalized gradient approximation for the exchange-correlation functional. We study the seven low-energy isomers of the Ti8C12 metallocarbohedrynes using spin-polarized DFT, where we find a correlation between the number of rotated carbon dimers and the cohesive energy of the structure. The electronic density of states (eDOS) show that C3nu, D*3d, and D3d isomers are spin polarized. The partial eDOS shows that, depending on the dimer orientation, carbon atoms and a subgroup of the metal atoms form a covalent framework while other metal atoms are bonded to this framework more ionically. This picture is further supported by the charge density of the different structures, where we see that the Ti atoms with higher charge density show less contribution to the covalent bonding of the Ti-C framework. The vibrational spectra of the different structures are calculated using the frozen-vibration method. Also, we calculate the vibrational spectra of the C3nu and C2nu structures using molecular-dynamics simulations at two different temperatures. The results of the simulations demonstrate the local stability of the structures beyond the harmonic limit explored by the frozen-vibration method.

Structure and Bonding in First-Row Transition Metal Dicarbide Cations MC2+

A theoretical study of the first-row transition metal dicarbide cations MC2+ (M=Sc-Zn) has been carried out. Predictions for different molecular properties that could help in their eventual experimental detection have been made. Most MC2+ compounds prefer a C2v symmetric arrangement over the linear geometry. In particular, the C2v isomer is specially favored for early transition metals. Only for CuC2+ is the linear isomer predicted to be the global minimum, although by only 1 kcal/mol. In all cases the isomerization barrier between cyclic and linear species seems to be very small (below 2 kcal/mol). The topological analysis of the electronic density shows that most C2v isomers are T-shaped structures. In general, MC2+ compounds for early transition metals have larger dissociation energies than those formed by late transition metals. In most cases the dissociation energies for MC2+ compounds are much smaller than those obtained for their neutral analogues. An analysis of the bonding in MC2+ compounds in terms of the interactions between the valence orbitals of the fragments helps to interpret their main features.

Structure and Bonding in First-Row Transition-Metal Dicarbides: Are They Related to the Stability of Met-cars?

First-row transition-metal dicarbides MC(2) (M=Sc-Zn) have been investigated by using quantum-mechanical techniques. The competition between cyclic and linear isomers in these systems has been studied and the bonding scheme for these compounds is discussed through topological analysis of electron density. All of the systems have been found to prefer a C(2v)-symmetric arrangement, although for ZnC(2) the energy difference between this and the linear isomer is rather small. In most cases the C(2v)-symmetric structure corresponds to a T-shaped structure, with the exceptions of TiC(2), CoC(2), and NiC(2) which have been shown to be true rings. A detailed analysis of the variation of the energy of the system with geometry has been carried out. An analysis of the bonding, taking into account the main interactions between the valence orbitals of both fragments, the M atom and the C(2) molecule, has allowed the main features of these compounds to be interpreted. A clear correlation between the dissociation energies of the first-row transition-metal dicarbides and the bonding energies of the corresponding met-cars was observed.

Gas-phase Interaction of Thiophene with the Ti8C12+ and Ti8C12 Met-Car Clusters

The reactivity of the Ti(8)C(12)(+) met-car cation toward thiophene was investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and mass selective ion chemistry. It is shown that the experimentally observed mass spectrum can be well described by the DFT calculations. In contrast to the weak bonding interactions seen for thiophene on a TiC(001) surface, the Ti(8)C(12)(+) met-car cation is able to interact strongly with up to four thiophene molecules with the cluster staying intact. In the most stable conformation, the thiophene molecules bond to the four low-coordinated Ti(0) sites of Ti(8)C(12)(+) via a eta(5)-C,S coordination. The stability and the activity of the Ti(8)C(12)(+) met-car is observed to increase with an increasing number of attached thiophene molecules at the Ti(0) sites, which is associated with a significant transfer of electron density from thiophene to the cluster. The additional electron density on the Ti(8)C(12)(+) cation cluster, however, is not sufficient to cleave the C-S bonds of thiophene and the dissociation reaction of thiophene is predicted to be a highly activated process. By contrast, DFT calculations for the neutral Ti(8)C(12) met-car predict that the dissociation reaction leading to adsorbed S and C(4)H(4) fragments is energetically favorable for the first thiophene molecule. The binding behavior for subsequent addition of thiophene molecules to the neutral met-car is also presented and compared to that of the cation.

Gas-Phase Reactivity of the Ti8C12+ Met-car with Triatomic Sulfur-Containing Molecules: CS2, SCO, and SO2

Gas-phase Ti(x)C(y)+ clusters (x/y = 3/5, 4/7, 5/9, 6/9, 7/12, 8/12, 9/12) including the magic Ti8C12+ (met-car) have been produced by reactive sputtering with a magnetron cluster source. The gas-phase reactivity of the met-car with SCO, CS2, and SO2 was investigated in a hexapole collision cell by way of tandem mass spectrometry. Results indicate an increase in activity as the oxygen-to-sulfur ratio increases (SO2 > SCO > CS2) with products ranging from association to break down of the met-car cluster. Trends in the mass spectra also indicate SCO and CS2 may bond to the met-car in a unique way not observed in previous reactivity studies on Ti8C12+. To investigate this, several possible single molecule-cluster bonding configurations were calculated with density functional theory. The results indicate that bridge bonding of the intact molecules is energetically preferred. In addition, the energy barriers and transition states leading to dissociation products were calculated and the trends are found to be in qualitative agreement with experiment. The effects of the different types of bonding and number of adsorbed species on the reactivity of the met-car along with proposed reaction mechanisms for product formation are also discussed.

Density Functional Theory of Water−Gas Shift Reaction on Molybdenum Carbide

The density functional theory (DFT) of the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction over molybdenum carbide was studied with the aim of understanding the dissociation of H(2)O, the OH group, and CO to determine on what sections of molybdenum carbide CO(2) and H(2) formed and whether they played a role in the reaction. The energy diagram of each elementary step, the reaction of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms with CO, and the transition state for this elementary step were also studied. The IR spectra of the CO adsorption was experimentally analyzed for the identification of several candidates of the CO adsorption modes. The adsorptions of the threefold Mo site (a) with and (b) without the underlying C atom of the second layer have the second and highest adsorption energies of -281.59 and -321.00 kJ/mol, respectively. The IR data showed that the bands at 1626 cm(-1) from the IR experiments are (a) the nearest adsorption of the threefold Mo site with the underlying C atom at the calculated/corrected band of 1621 cm(-1). The calculated/corrected threefold adsorption (b) had the highest adsorption energy but exhibited an IR band at 1147 cm(-1) which was not observed in the experimental data. The C-O bond length increased to 1.49 from 1.36 after the H(2)O adsorption (b), suggesting the dissociation of C-O after the H(2)O coadsorption. The WGS reaction on the beta-Mo(2)C(001) slab carbide was calculated and took place as follows: H(2)O was dissociated into OH and H on the Mo(2)C surface and the OH subsequently dissociated into H and O atoms. CO approached the O atom to form CO(2).

Density-Functional-Theory Studies of the Infrared Spectra of Titanium Carbide Nanocrystals

The infrared (IR) spectra of cuboidic titanium carbide (TiC) nanocrystals have been studied at the density-functional-theory (DFT) level using the Becke-Perdew (BP) functional and triple-zeta quality basis sets augmented by one set of polarization functions (TZVP). The accuracy of the calculations was checked by DFT calculations using the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof hybrid functional (PBE0) and up to quadruple-zeta quality basis sets augmented by one set of polarization functions (QZVP). The calculated IR spectrum for Ti(14)C(13) (3 x 3 x 3) is found to be in fair agreement with the experimental IR spectrum obtained by infrared resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (IR-REMPI) measurements, whereas, for Ti(18)C(18) (4 x 3 x 3) and Ti(32)C(32) (4 x 4 x 4), the calculated IR spectra differ significantly from the experimental ones. The smallest TiC cluster (Ti(4)C(4), 2 x 2 x 2) considered has not been reported in any mass-spectrometer studies. The present DFT calculations show that the vibrational modes related to the in-plane vibrations of solid TiC are not observed in the IR-REMPI spectra of nanocrystals larger than Ti(14)C(13). Contrary to solid TiC, the studied TiC nanocrystals are nonmetallic with optical gaps of 0.62 eV (0.55 eV) and 0.028 eV (0.027 eV) for Ti(32)C(32) and Ti(108)C(108) (6 x 6 x 6), calculated at the time-dependent density-functional-theory (TDDFT) level using the BP functional. The HOMO-LUMO gaps obtained in the BP DFT calculations are given within parentheses. At the PBE0 DFT level, the HOMO-LUMO gaps for Ti(32)C(32) and Ti(108)C(108) are 1.74 and 0.32 eV, respectively.

The chemical activity of metal compound nanoparticles: Importance of electronic and steric effects in M8C12 (M=Ti, V, Mo) metcars

Density functional theory was employed to investigate the chemical activity of metal carbide nanoparticles. The present calculations indicate that M(8)C(12) (M=Ti, V, Mo) nanoparticles exhibit a unique behavior compared to metal [M(001)] and metal carbide surfaces [M(2)C(001) and MC(001)]. It is found that the nanoparticles behave very reactive in spite of the high carbon concentration in some reactions, while surprisingly inert in other cases. Our study reveals that the unexpected activity is the result of the interplay of shifts in the metal d-bands and distortions in the geometry of the metal carbide nanoparticles.