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ABSTRACT: The clustering of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules is investigated in the context of soot particle inception and growth using an isotropic potential developed from the benchmark PAHAP potential. This potential is used to estimate equilibrium constants of dimerisation for five representative PAH molecules based on a statistical mechanics model. Molecular dynamics simulations are also performed to study the clustering of homomolecular systems at a range of temperatures. The results from both sets of calculations demonstrate that at flame temperatures pyrene (C(16)H(10)) dimerisation cannot be a key step in soot particle formation and that much larger molecules (e.g. circumcoronene, C(54)H(18)) are required to form small clusters at flame temperatures. The importance of using accurate descriptions of the intermolecular interactions is demonstrated by comparing results to those calculated with a popular literature potential with an order of magnitude variation in the level of clustering observed. By using an accurate intermolecular potential we are able to show that physical binding of PAH molecules based on van der Waals interactions alone can only be a viable soot inception mechanism if concentrations of large PAH molecules are significantly higher than currently thought.
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 02/2012; 14(12):4081-94. · 3.57 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We report on a survey of the potential energy surface for the 13-molecule benzene cluster, (C(6)H(6))(13), bound by an atom-atom intermolecular potential developed from first principles. The potential, which has an anisotropic repulsion term, is found to support distinct pairs of structures of C(3), C(i), and S(6) symmetry as low-lying minima, including a C(3) global minimum. The organisation of the low-lying region of the potential energy surface suggests that one of the S(6) structures is likely to act as a kinetic trap, hindering efficient relaxation to the global minimum, in agreement with the hypothesis that two isomers coexist in this system, suggested by spectroscopic experiments.
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 12/2011; 13(48):21362-6. · 3.57 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In this work we assess a recently published anisotropic potential for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules (J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2010, 6, 683-695). Comparison to recent high-level symmetry-adapted perturbation theory based on density functional theory (SAPT(DFT)) results for coronene (C(24)H(12)) demonstrate the transferability of the potential while highlighting some limitations with simple point charge descriptions of the electrostatic interaction. The potential is also shown to reproduce second virial coefficients of benzene (C(6)H(6)) with high accuracy, and this is enhanced by using a distributed multipole model for the electrostatic interaction. The graphene dimer interaction energy and the exfoliation energy of graphite have been estimated by extrapolation of PAH interaction energies. The contribution of nonlocal fluctuations in the π electron density in graphite have also been estimated which increases the exfoliation energy by 3.0 meV atom(-1) to 47.6 meV atom(-1), which compares well to recent theoretical and experimental results.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 10/2011; 115(46):13684-93. · 2.95 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Standard empirical atom−atom potentials are shown to be unable to describe the binding of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules in the variety of configurations seen in clusters. The main reason for this inadequacy is the lack of anisotropy in these potentials. We have constructed an anisotropic atom−atom intermolecular potential for the benzene molecule from first principles using a symmetry-adapted perturbation theory based on density functional theory (SAPT(DFT)), interaction energy calculations and the Williams−Stone−Misquitta method for obtaining molecular properties in distributed form. Using this potential as a starting point, we have constructed a transferable anisotropic potential to model intermolecular interactions between PAHs. This new potential has been shown to accurately model interaction energies for a variety of dimer configurations for four different PAH molecules, including certain configurations which are poorly modeled with current isotropic potentials. It is intended that this potential will form the basis for further work on the aggregation of PAHs.
02/2010;
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ABSTRACT: AlCl(3) is added in small quantities to TiCl(4) fed to industrial reactors during the combustion synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in order to promote the rutile crystal phase. Despite the importance of this process, a detailed mechanism including AlCl(3) is still not available. This work presents the thermochemistry of many of the intermediates in the early stages of the mechanism, computed using quantum chemistry. The enthalpies of formation and thermochemical data for AlCl, AlO, AlOCl, AlOCl(2), AlO(2), AlO(2)Cl, AlOCl(3), AlO(2)Cl(2), AlO(3)ClTi, AlO(2)Cl(2)Ti, AlO(2)Cl(4)Ti, AlOCl(5)Ti, AlO(2)Cl(3)Tia (isomer-a), AlO(3)Cl(2)Ti, AlO(2)Cl(5)Ti, AlOCl(4)Ti, AlO(2)Cl(3)Tib (isomer-b), AlCl(7)Ti, AlCl(6)Ti, Al(2)Cl(6), Al(2)O(2)Cl, Al(2)O(2)Cl(3), Al(2)O(3)Cl(2), Al(2)O(2)Cl(2), Al(2)OCl(4), Al(2)O(3), and Al(2)OCl(3) were calculated using density functional theory (DFT). A full comparison between a number of methods is made for one of the important species, AlOCl, to validate the use of DFT and gauge the magnitude of errors involved with this method. Finally, equilibrium calculations are performed to try to identify which intermediates are likely to be most prevalent in the high temperature industrial process and as a first attempt to characterize the nucleation process.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 11/2009; 113(49):13790-6. · 2.95 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In this paper we present studies of clusters assembled from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules similar in size to small soot particles. The clusters studied were comprised of coronene (C24H12) or pyrene (C16H10) molecules and represent the types of soot precursor molecule typically found in flame environments. A stochastic ‘basin-hopping’ global optimisation scheme was used to locate low-lying local minima on the potential energy surface of the molecular clusters. TEM-style projections of the resulting geometries show similarities with those observed experimentally in TEM images of soot particles. The mass densities of these clusters have also been calculated and are lower than bulk values of the pure crystalline PAH structures. They are also significantly lower than the standard value of 1.8 g/cm3 used in our soot models. Consequently we have varied the mass density between 1.0 g/cm3 and 1.8 g/cm3 to examine the effects of varying soot density on our soot model and observed how the shape of the particle size distribution changes. Based on similarities between nascent soot particles and PAH clusters a more accurate soot density is likely to be significantly lower than 1.8 g/cm3. As such, for modelling purposes, we recommend that the density of nascent soot should be taken to be the value obtained for our coronene cluster of 1.12 g/cm3.
Combustion and Flame.
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ABSTRACT: This work presents thermochemical data for many of the intermediates in the early stages of the combustion of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) in the presence of residual species from a methane flame. An algorithm developed for previous work is employed to ensure that all possible species are considered, reducing the probability of neglecting important species. Thermochemical data and enthalpies of formation are calculated for 141 new species using density functional theory (DFT) and statistical mechanics. Equilibrium calculations are performed to try to identify which intermediates are likely to be most prevalent in the high temperature industrial process. The 10 species with the highest equilibrium compositions are identified and presented in the paper. These species, TiCl3OH, TiCl2OH, TiCl(OH)2, TiOOH, TiOClOH, TiClOH, TiO(OH)2, TiHOOH, TiCl2(OH)2, and TiClHOH, along with the original TixOyClz species are likely to be the most important species involved in the kinetic model. Data for the remaining species is provided as Supplementary data. The abundance of TiiOjClkHl species is high considering the low amount of hydrogen present in the simulation and they are likely to have a significant impact on the process, something that has not been recognized in previous publications.
Proceedings of the Combustion Institute.
