Metal Oxo-Fluoride Molecules OnMF2 (M = Mn and Fe; n = 1-4) and O2MnF: Matrix Infrared Spectra and Quantum Chemistry

On reacting laser-ablated manganese or iron difluorides with O₂ or O₃ during codeposition in solid neon or argon, infrared absorptions of several new metal oxo-fluoride molecules, including OMF₂, (η¹-O₂)MF₂, (η²-O₃)MF₂, (η¹-O₂)₂MF₂ (M = Mn and Fe), and O₂MnF, have been observed. Quantum chemical density functional and multiconfiguration wavefunction calculations have been applied to characterize these new products by their geometric and electronic structures, vibrations, charges, and bonding. The assignment of the main vibrational absorptions as dominant symmetric or antisymmetric M-F or M-O stretching modes is confirmed by oxygen isotopic shifts and quantum chemical calculations of frequencies and thermal stabilities. The tendency of Fe to form polyoxygen complexes in lower oxidation states than the preceding element Mn is affirmed experimentally and supported theoretically. The M-F stretching frequencies of the isolated metal oxo-fluorides may provide a scale for the local charge on the MF₂ sites in active energy conversion systems. The study of these species provides insights for understanding the trend of oxidation state changes across the transition-metal series.

Removal of fluoride from water using activated carbon fibres modified with zirconium by a drop-coating method

Metal-modified carbon materials have been widely used for fluoride removal, but the traditional impregnation by soaking method suffers from low loading of metals and substantial use of chemicals. This study proposed a new approach to prepare zirconium modified activated carbon fibres (Zr-ACF) by a drop-coating method. Using the same amount of chemicals, the drop-coating method yielded a 5.5 times higher fluoride adsorption capacity than the soaking method due to more effective loading of Zr(IV) onto ACF. The effects of various preparation conditions, including the addition of a complexing agent (oxalic acid) and Zr/ACF mass ratio (0.2-1), were investigated. Zr-ACF prepared by drop-coating was characterised by SEM and BET, and the functional groups involved in the anchoring of Zr(IV) on ACF and the adsorption of fluoride onto Zr-ACF were identified by FTIR and XPS. Adsorption experiments at pH between 3 and 11 revealed that ion exchange and electrostatic attraction were the main adsorption mechanisms at different pH levels. Co-existing anions such as CO₃^2-, HCO₃^- and Cl^- had an insignificant negative impact (<5%) on fluoride adsorption capacity while SO₄^2- decreased fluoride adsorption capacity by 11.5%. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption isotherms followed the Langmuir isotherm model with a maximum fluoride adsorption capacity of 28.50 mg/L at 25 °C, which was higher than other carbon-based materials in the literature. The remarkable improvement of adsorption capacity and reduced chemical consumption demonstrate that Zr-ACF prepared by drop-coating is a promising adsorbent for fluoride removal.

Ultrasound assisted synthesis of Mg-Mn-Zr impregnated activated carbon for effective fluoride adsorption from water

High fluoride content in the natural water sources is a serious matter of concern and adsorption is recommended as one of the most convenient, affordable and widely applied defluorination technologies. In this study, a novel composite was synthesized by impregnating magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn) and zirconium (Zr) on powdered activated carbon (AC) for effective fluoride adsorption and the synthesis was made using sonochemical method. The characterization of the prepared adsorbent AC-Mg-Mn-Zr along with individual metal composites AC-Zr, AC-Mg and AC-Mn were done by SEM, EDX, FTIR, XRD and BET analysis to understand the major functional bonds, and changes in surface chemistry after adsorption. The mechanism of the process was discussed through major reactions involved for individual metals. Due to high point of zero charge (pH_PZC = 11.9), the adsorbent was able to remove more than 96% of fluoride consistently with only 1 g/L of optimum adsorbent dosage for a wide pH range (2 to 10). The maximum adsorption capacity obtained was 26.27 mg/g within an equilibrium time of 3 h. More than 96% energy saving was achieved in the sonochemical synthesis route compared to conventional precipitation method of synthesis.

Acoustic cavitation induced synthesis of zirconium impregnated activated carbon for effective fluoride scavenging from water by adsorption

Environmental concern associated with the side effects of high fluoride content in ground water and surface water has prompted the researchers to look for an efficient, convenient and easy method. Considering the potential of a good adsorbent, present study reports the synthesis of a composite by impregnating zirconium on powdered activated carbon (AC) using ultrasound as the tool for synthesis and applying it for fluoride adsorption from water. The nature of the composite was determined through characterization by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive Xray (EDX), Xray diffraction (XRD), N₂ adsorption analysis (BET) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The pH_pzc (point of zero charge) of the adsorbent was found to be 5.03; with the optimum pH obtained at 4 for adsorption of strong electronegative fluoride ions. The initial fluoride concentration was varied from 2.5 up to 20 mg.L^-1 and the maximum adsorption capacity of 5 mg.g^-1 was obtained. A maximum fluoride removal of 94.4% was obtained for an initial concentration of 2.5 mg.L^-1 within an equilibrium time of 180 min. The adsorption isotherm followed the Langmuir isotherm model indicating a monolayer adsorption process and the adsorption kinetics followed pseudo second order model. The effects of various coexisting ions (HCO₃^-, NO₃^-, SO₄^2-, Cl^-) commonly present in the water were found to have negligible impact on the process performance. Conducting the adsorption-desorption studies for five consecutive cycles for an initial fluoride concentration of 10 mg.L^-1, the removal efficiency reduced from 86.2 to 32.6%. The ultrasonic method provided an easy route to synthesize the composite in less time and significantly reduced energy consumption by more than 96% compared to the conventional method.

Pair natural orbital and canonical coupled cluster reaction enthalpies involving light to heavy alkali and alkaline earth metals: the importance of sub-valence correlation

In this work, we tested canonical and domain based pair natural orbital coupled cluster methods (CCSD(T) and DLPNO-CCSD(T), respectively) for a set of 32 ligand exchange and association/dissociation reaction enthalpies involving ionic complexes of Li, Be, Na, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba and Pb(ii). Two strategies were investigated: in the former, only valence electrons were included in the correlation treatment, giving rise to the computationally very efficient FC (frozen core) approach; in the latter, all non-ECP electrons were included in the correlation treatment, giving rise to the AE (all electron) approach. Apart from reactions involving Li and Be, the FC approach resulted in non-homogeneous performance. The FC approach leads to very small errors (<2 kcal mol^-1) for some reactions of Na, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba and Pb, while for a few reactions of Ca and Ba deviations up to 40 kcal mol^-1 have been obtained. Large errors are both due to artificial mixing of the core (sub-valence) orbitals of metals and the valence orbitals of oxygen and halogens in the molecular orbitals treated as core, and due to neglecting core-core and core-valence correlation effects. These large errors are reduced to a few kcal mol^-1 if the AE approach is used or the sub-valence orbitals of metals are included in the correlation treatment. On the technical side, the CCSD(T) and DLPNO-CCSD(T) results differ by a fraction of kcal mol^-1, indicating the latter method as the perfect choice when the CPU efficiency is essential. For completely black-box applications, as requested in catalysis or thermochemical calculations, we recommend the DLPNO-CCSD(T) method with all electrons that are not covered by effective core potentials included in the correlation treatment and correlation-consistent polarized core valence basis sets of cc-pwCVQZ(-PP) quality.

Ground-State Gas-Phase Structures of Inorganic Molecules Predicted by Density Functional Theory Methods

We tested a battery of density functional theory (DFT) methods ranging from generalized gradient approximation (GGA) via meta-GGA to hybrid meta-GGA schemes as well as Møller-Plesset perturbation theory of the second order and a single and double excitation coupled-cluster (CCSD) theory for their ability to reproduce accurate gas-phase structures of di- and triatomic molecules derived from microwave spectroscopy. We obtained the most accurate molecular structures using the hybrid and hybrid meta-GGA approximations with B3PW91, APF, TPSSh, mPW1PW91, PBE0, mPW1PBE, B972, and B98 functionals, resulting in lowest errors. We recommend using these methods to predict accurate three-dimensional structures of inorganic molecules when intramolecular dispersion interactions play an insignificant role. The structures that the CCSD method predicts are of similar quality although at considerably larger computational cost. The structures that GGA and meta-GGA schemes predict are less accurate with the largest absolute errors detected with BLYP and M11-L, suggesting that these methods should not be used if accurate three-dimensional molecular structures are required. Because of numerical problems related to the integration of the exchange-correlation part of the functional and large scattering of errors, most of the Minnesota models tested, particularly MN12-L, M11, M06-L, SOGGA11, and VSXC, are also not recommended for geometry optimization. When maintaining a low computational budget is essential, the nonseparable gradient functional N12 might work within an acceptable range of error. As expected, the DFT-D3 dispersion correction had a negligible effect on the internuclear distances when combined with the functionals tested on nonweakly bonded di- and triatomic inorganic molecules. By contrast, the dispersion correction for the APF-D functional has been found to shorten the bonds significantly, up to 0.064 Å (AgI), in Ag halides, BaO, BaS, BaF, BaCl, Cu halides, and Li and Na halides and hydrides. These results do not agree well with very accurate structures derived from microwave spectroscopy; we therefore believe that the dispersion correction in the APF-D method should be reconsidered. Finally, we found that inaccurate structures can easily lead to errors of few kcal/mol in single-point energies.

Double and Triple Si-H-M Bridge Bonds: Matrix Infrared Spectra and Theoretical Calculations for Reaction Products of Silane with Ti, Zr, and Hf Atoms

Infrared spectra of matrix isolated dibridged Si(μ-H)₂MH₂ and tribridged Si(μ-H)₃MH molecules (M = Zr and Hf) were observed following the laser-ablated metal atom reactions with SiH₄ during condensation in excess argon and neon, but only the latter species was observed with titanium. Assignments of the major vibrational modes, which included terminal MH, MH₂ and hydrogen bridge Si-H-M stretching modes, were confirmed by the appropriate SiD₄ isotopic shifts and density functional vibrational frequency calculations (B3LYP and BPW91). The Si-H-M hydrogen bridge bond is calculated as weak covalent interaction and compared with the C-H···M agostic interaction in terms of electron localization function (ELF) analysis and noncovalent interaction index (NCI) calculations. Furthermore, the different products of Ti, Zr, and Hf reactions with SiH₄ are discussed in detail.

Structures and Properties of the Products of the Reaction of Lanthanide Atoms with H2O: Dominance of the +II Oxidation State

The reactions of lanthanides with H2O have been studied using density functional theory with the B3LYP functional. H2O forms an initial Lewis acid-base complex with the lanthanides exothermically with interaction energies from -2 to -20 kcal/mol. For most of the Ln, formation of HLnOH is more exothermic than formation of H2LnO, HLnO + H, and LnOH + H. The reactions to produce HLnOH are exothermic from -25 to -75 kcal/mol. The formation of LnO + H2 for La and Ce is slightly more exothermic than formation of HLnOH and is less or equally exothermic for the rest of the lanthanides. The Ln in HLnOH and LnOH are in the formal +II and +I oxidation states, respectively. The Ln in H2LnO is mostly in the +III formal oxidation state with either Ln-O(-)/Ln-H(-) or Ln-(H2)(-)/Ln=O(2-) bonding interactions. A few of the H2LnO have the Ln in the +IV or mixed +III/+IV formal oxidation states with Ln=O(2-)/Ln-H(-) bonding interactions. The Ln in HLnO are generally in the +III oxidation state with the exception of Yb in the +II state. The orbital populations calculated within the natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis are consistent with the oxidation states and reaction energies. The more exothermic reactions to produce HLnOH are always associated with more backbonding from the O(H) and H characterized by more population in the 6s and 5d in Ln and the formation of a stronger Ln-O(H) bond. Overall, the calculations are consistent with the experiments in terms of reaction energies and vibrational frequencies.