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Sikorska C. Design and Investigation of Superatoms for Redox Applications: First-Principles Studies. MICROMACHINES 2023; 15:78. [PMID: 38258197 PMCID: PMC10820084 DOI: 10.3390/mi15010078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2023] [Revised: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
A superatom is a cluster of atoms that acts like a single atom. Two main groups of superatoms are superalkalis and superhalogens, which mimic the chemistry of alkali and halogen atoms, respectively. The ionization energies of superalkalis are smaller than those of alkalis (<3.89 eV for cesium atom), and the electron affinities of superhalogens are larger than that of halogens (>3.61 eV for chlorine atom). Exploring new superalkali/superhalogen aims to provide reliable data and predictions of the use of such compounds as redox agents in the reduction/oxidation of counterpart systems, as well as the role they can play more generally in materials science. The low ionization energies of superalkalis make them candidates for catalysts for CO2 conversion into renewable fuels and value-added chemicals. The large electron affinity of superhalogens makes them strong oxidizing agents for bonding and removing toxic molecules from the environment. By using the superatoms as building blocks of cluster-assembled materials, we can achieve the functional features of atom-based materials (like conductivity or catalytic potential) while having more flexibility to achieve higher performance. This feature paper covers the issues of designing such compounds and demonstrates how modifications of the superatoms (superhalogens and superalkalis) allow for the tuning of the electronic structure and might be used to create unique functional materials. The designed superatoms can form stable perovskites for solar cells, electrolytes for Li-ion batteries of electric vehicles, superatomic solids, and semiconducting materials. The designed superatoms and their redox potential evaluation could help experimentalists create new materials for use in fields such as energy storage and climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Celina Sikorska
- Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, Fahrenheit Union of Universities in Gdańsk, Wita Stwosza 63, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland;
- Department of Physics, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
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Pandey SK, Arunan E, Das R, Roy A, Mishra AK. Recent advances in in silico design and characterization of superalkali-based materials and their potential applications: A review. Front Chem 2022; 10:1019166. [PMID: 36419589 PMCID: PMC9676666 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2022.1019166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 06/21/2024] Open
Abstract
In the advancement of novel materials, chemistry plays a vital role in developing the realm where we survive. Superalkalis are a group of clusters/molecules having lower ionization potentials (IPs) than that of the cesium atom (3.89 eV) and thus, show excellent reducing properties. However, the chemical industry and material science both heavily rely on such reducing substances; an in silico approach-based design and characterization of superalkalis have been the focus of ongoing studies in this area along with their potential applications. However, although superalkalis have been substantially sophisticated materials over the past couple of decades, there is still room for enumeration of the recent progress going on in various interesting species using computational experiments. In this review, the recent developments in designing/modeling and characterization (theoretically) of a variety of superalkali-based materials have been summarized along with their potential applications. Theoretically acquired properties of some novel superalkali cations (Li3 +) and C6Li6 species, etc. for capturing and storing CO2/N2 molecules have been unveiled in this report. Additionally, this report unravels the first-order polarizability-based nonlinear optical (NLO) response features of numerous computationally designed novel superalkali-based materials, for instance, fullerene-like mixed-superalkali-doped B12N12 and B12P12 nanoclusters with good UV transparency and mixed-valent superalkali-based CaN3Ca (a high-sensitivity alkali-earth-based aromatic multi-state NLO molecular switch, and lead-founded halide perovskites designed by incorporating superalkalis, supersalts, and so on) which can indeed be used as a new kind of electronic nanodevice used in designing hi-tech NLO materials. Understanding the mere interactions of alkalides in the gas and liquid phases and the potential to influence how such systems can be extended and applied in the future are also highlighted in this survey. In addition to offering an overview of this research area, it is expected that this review will also provide new insights into the possibility of expanding both the experimental synthesis and the practical use of superalkalis and their related species. Superalkalis present the intriguing possibility of acting as cutting-edge construction blocks of nanomaterials with highly modifiable features that may be utilized for a wide-ranging prospective application.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarvesh Kumar Pandey
- Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
| | - Elangannan Arunan
- Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
| | - Ratnesh Das
- Department of Chemistry, Dr. Harisingh Gour University (A Central University), Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India
| | - Atish Roy
- Department of Chemistry, Dr. Harisingh Gour University (A Central University), Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India
| | - Arunesh Kumar Mishra
- Department of Chemistry, Dr. Harisingh Gour University (A Central University), Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India
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Fantuzzi F, Oliveira RR, Henkes AV, Rubayo-Soneira J, Nascimento MAC. Mechanistic Insights into the Formation of Lithium Fluoride Nanotubes. Chemistry 2019; 25:5269-5279. [PMID: 30868682 DOI: 10.1002/chem.201805991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2018] [Revised: 01/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/07/2022]
Abstract
Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (BOMD) and periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been applied for describing the mechanism of formation of lithium fluoride (LiF) nanotubes with cubic, hexagonal, octagonal, decagonal, dodecagonal, and tetradecagonal cross-sections. It has been shown that high energy structures, such as nanowires, nanorings, nanosheets, and nanopolyhedra are transient species for the formation of stable nanotubes. Unprecedented (LiF)n clusters (n≤12) were also identified, some of them lying less than 10 kcal mol-[1] above their respective global minima. Such findings indicate that stochastic synthetic techniques, such as laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition, should be combined with a template-driven procedure in order to generate the nanotubes with adequate efficiency. Apart from the stepwise growth of LiF units, the formation of nanotubes was also studied by rolling up a planar square sheet monolayer, which could be hypothetically produced from the exfoliation of the FCC crystal structure. It was shown that both pathways could lead to the formation of alkali halide nanotubes, a still unprecedented set of one-dimensional materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felipe Fantuzzi
- Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos 149, 21941-909, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Current Address: Institute for Inorganic Chemistry, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Ricardo R Oliveira
- Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos 149, 21941-909, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Aline V Henkes
- Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos 149, 21941-909, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Jesús Rubayo-Soneira
- Instituto Superior de Tecnologías y Ciencias Aplicadas (InSTEC), Universidad de La Habana, Ave. Salvador Allende No. 1110, Quinta de los Molinos, 10400, La Habana, Cuba
| | - Marco Antonio Chaer Nascimento
- Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos 149, 21941-909, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Polynuclear Li12F13 − anion as a steric shielding agent with respect to selected metal ions. Theor Chem Acc 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s00214-016-1992-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Zhao J, Shi R, Sai L, Huang X, Su Y. Comprehensive genetic algorithm forab initioglobal optimisation of clusters. MOLECULAR SIMULATION 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/08927022.2015.1121386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Oschetzki D, Rauhut G. Pushing the limits in accurate vibrational structure calculations: anharmonic frequencies of lithium fluoride clusters (LiF)n, n = 2-10. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2015; 16:16426-35. [PMID: 24981078 DOI: 10.1039/c4cp02264e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The vibrational spectra of a series of small lithium fluoride clusters, i.e. (LiF)n, n = 2-10, were studied by vibrational configuration interaction (VCI) calculations relying on potential energy surfaces including three-mode coupling terms and being obtained from explicitly correlated local coupled cluster calculations. Due to the account for anharmonicity effects, the simulated spectra allow for a direct comparison with experimental data and may thus help to identify clusters in the experiments. Even structurally closely related clusters can clearly be distinguished by infrared spectroscopy. The largest system in this study required more than 1000 basis functions in the electronic structure calculations and more than 10(7) configurations in the vibrational structure calculations and became computationally feasible only due to a combination of different approximations and highly parallelized algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominik Oschetzki
- Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 55, Stuttgart D-70569, Germany.
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Fernandez-Lima FA, Henkes AV, da Silveira EF, Nascimento MAC. Alkali Halide Nanotubes: Structure and Stability. THE JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. C, NANOMATERIALS AND INTERFACES 2012; 116:10.1021/jp208090j. [PMID: 24376901 PMCID: PMC3873780 DOI: 10.1021/jp208090j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
Accurate density functional theory (DFT) and coupled-cluster (CCSD) calculations on a series of (LiF) n=2,36 neutral clusters suggest that nanotube structures with hexagonal and octagonal transversal cross sections show stability equal to or greater than that of the typical cubic form of large LiF crystals. The nanotube stability was further corroborated by quantum dynamic calculations at room temperature. The fact that stable nanotube structures were also found for other alkali halides (e.g., NaCl and KBr) suggests that this geometry may be widely implemented in material sciences.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Enio F. da Silveira
- Physics Department, Pontifícia Universidade Catolica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Fernandez-Lima FA, Nascimento MAC, da Silveira EF. Alkali halide clusters produced by fast ion impact. NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH. SECTION B, BEAM INTERACTIONS WITH MATERIALS AND ATOMS 2012; 273:102-104. [PMID: 22389542 PMCID: PMC3290408 DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2011.07.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
The most abundant geometries and relative stabilities of alkali halide clusters with a (XY)(n) (o) configuration (e.g., LiF, NaCl, KBr) are described. Five main series were obtained: linear, cyclic, cubic, arc strips and nanotubes. The stability analysis shows that higher members are likely to be formed from the lower member of the same series and/or from two building blocks (n = 1, 2). The energy analysis (D-plot) indicates that the most compact ones (e.g., cubic and nanotubes) present higher stability when compared to the linear, cyclic and arc strip structures; moreover, relative stability between the cubic and nanotube series varies with the cluster size.
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