Adsorption of acetaldehyde on ice as seen from computer simulation and infrared spectroscopy measurements

Adsorption of C2-C5 alcohols on ice. A grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation study

In this paper, we report Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations performed to characterize the adsorption of four linear alcohol molecules, comprising between 2 and 5 carbon atoms (namely, ethanol, n-propanol, n-butanol, and n-pentanol) on crystalline ice in a temperature range typical of the Earth's troposphere.The adsorption details analysed at 228 K show that, at low coverage of the ice surface, the polar head of the adsorbed molecules tend to optimize its hydrogen bonding with the surrounding water, whereas the aliphatic chain lie more or less parallel to the ice surface. With increasing coverage, the lateral interactions between the adsorbed alcohol molecules lead to the reorientation of the aliphatic chains which tend to become perpendicular to the surface, the adsorbed molecules pointing thus their terminal methyl group up to the gas phase. When compared to the experimental data, the simulated and measured isotherms show a very good agreement, although a small temperature shift between simulations and experiments could be inferred from simulations at various temperatures. In addition, this agreement appears to be better for ethanol and n-propanol than for n-butanol and n-pentanol, especially at the highest pressures investigated, pointing to a possible slight underestimation of the lateral interactions between the largest alcohol molecules by the interaction potential model used. Nevertheless, the global accuracy of the approach used, as tested in tropospheric conditions, opens the way for its use in modeling studies also relevant to another (e.g., astrophysical) context.

Description of the Interfacial Behavior of Benzonitrile at Icy Surfaces by Grand Canonical Monte Carlo Simulations

The adsorption of benzonitrile at the surface of crystalline (I_h) and low-density amorphous (LDA) ice has been investigated by grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations at temperatures ranging from 50 to 200 K. It is found that, in spite of its rather large dipole moment of 4.5 D, benzonitrile molecules can only form a highly unsaturated monolayer on LDA ice, reaching not more than 50% of the surface concentration of the saturated monolayer even at the lowest temperature considered, and they practically do not adsorb on I_h ice. In spite of the observed weak ability of the benzonitrile molecules for being adsorbed, the estimated heat of adsorption at an infinitely low surface concentration of -66.8 ± 2.2 kJ/mol is rather large. This value includes the contribution of roughly -30 to -35 kJ/mol of a benzene ring, about -10 kJ/mol of a large molecular dipole moment, and about -20 to -25 kJ/mol of a benzonitrile-water H-bond, as estimated from comparisons with the heat of adsorption values of similar molecules. The surprisingly weak ability of benzonitrile for adsorption is thus attributed to the unusually strong cohesion between the molecules, considerably exceeding their adhesion to ice, as reflected in the 70-80 kJ/mol difference of the lateral and ice contributions to the binding energy of surface benzonitrile molecules in the presence of condensed benzonitrile.

Analysis of Guest Adsorption on Crystal Surfaces Based on the Fragment Molecular Orbital Method

For gaining insights into interactions in periodic systems, an analysis is developed based on the fragment molecular orbital method combined with periodic boundary conditions. The adsorption energy is decomposed into guest and surface polarization and deformation energy, guest-surface and guest-guest interactions, and the vibrational free energy. The analysis is applied to the adsorption of guest molecules to Ih (001) ice surface. The cooperativity effects result in a non-linear change in the adsorption energy with coverage due to many-body effects. The role of dispersion is found to be dominant for guests with long hydrophobic tails. A rule is proposed relating the length of the alkyl tail with the formation of the guest layer. The computed binding enthalpies are in good agreement with experimental values. For high coverage, adsorbed molecules can form an ordered layer known as self-assembled monolayer.

Proton transfer reactions between nitric acid and acetone, hydroxyacetone, acetaldehyde and benzaldehyde in the solid phase

The heterogeneous and homogeneous reactions of acetone, hydroxyacetone, acetaldehyde and benzaldehyde with solid nitric acid (HNO(3)) films have been studied with Reflection-Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy (RAIRS) under Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) conditions in the 90-170 K temperature range. In the bulk or at the surface of the films, nitric acid transfers its proton to the carbonyl function of the organic molecules, producing protonated acetone-H(+), hydroxyacetone-H(+), acetaldehyde-H(+) and benzaldehyde-H(+), and nitrate anions NO(3)(-), a reaction not observed when nitric acid is previously hydrated [J. Lasne, C. Laffon and Ph. Parent, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2012, 14, 697]. This provides a molecular-scale description of the carbonyl protonation reaction in an acid medium, the first step of the acid-catalyzed condensation of carbonyl compounds, fuelling the growth of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in the atmosphere.