The electric pulse modification （EP, EPM） of liquid metal is a novel method for grain refinement. The structure of EP-modified Al-5%Cu melt was characterized by high-temperature X-ray diffractometry. The results sho...The electric pulse modification （EP, EPM） of liquid metal is a novel method for grain refinement. The structure of EP-modified Al-5%Cu melt was characterized by high-temperature X-ray diffractometry. The results show that the Cu-containing Al clusters remarkably increase in the EP-modified melt, furthermore, these clusters in that case tend to contract due to the decrease of relevant atomic radius and the co-ordination number. This kind of liquid-phase structure leads to a more homogeneous Cu-rich phase distribution in the final solidification structure. Differential scanning calorimetry （DSC） tests indicate that the solidification super-cooling degree of the EP-modified liquid phase is 2.36 times that of the unmodified. These facts suggest that the atom cluster changes in EP-modified Al-5%Cu melt would disagree with that by EPM model previously proposed in liquid pure metal.展开更多
The rapid solidification processes of liquid Cu56Zr44 alloys at different cooling rates （γ） were simulated by a molecular dynamics （MD） method. In order to assess the influence of cooling rate on the clustering t...The rapid solidification processes of liquid Cu56Zr44 alloys at different cooling rates （γ） were simulated by a molecular dynamics （MD） method. In order to assess the influence of cooling rate on the clustering tendency and degree towards icosahedrons, a ten-indices＇ cluster-type index method was suggested to characterize the local atomic structures in the super-cooled liquid and the rapidly solidified solid. And their clustering and ordering degrees as well as the packing density of ieosahedral clusters were also evaluated by an icosahedral clustering degree （fI）, the chemical order parameter （ηαβ） and densification coefficients （D0, DI and DIS）, respectively. Results show that the main local atomic configurations in Cu56Zr44 alloy system are Z12 clusters centered by Cu, and most of which are （12 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0） standard icosahedra and （12 0 8 0 0 0 2 2 0 0） as well as （12 2 8 2 0 0 0 0 0 0） defective icosahedra. Below glass transition temperature （Tg）, these icosahedral clusters will be coalesced to various icosahedral medium-range orders （IMROs） by IS linkages, namely, icosahedral bond, and their number N, size n, order parameter ηαβ as well as spatial distributions vary with y. As the cooling rate exceeds the critical value （γc） at which a glassy transition can take place, a lower cooling rate, e.g., γ1=10^1K/ns, is demonstrated to be favorable to uplift the number of icosahedra and enlarge the size of IMROs compared with the higher cooling rates, e.g., γ5=10^5 K/ns, and their packing density and clustering degree towards icosahedra in the rapidly solidified solid can also benefit from the slow cooling process.展开更多
Chemoselective hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehyde to unsaturated alcohol has attracted growing interests in recent years due to its widespread applications in fine chemicals.However,the hydrogenation of the C=O bon...Chemoselective hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehyde to unsaturated alcohol has attracted growing interests in recent years due to its widespread applications in fine chemicals.However,the hydrogenation of the C=O bond was thermodynamically and kinetically unfavorable over the hydrogenation of the C=C bond.Thus,to obtain the unsaturated alcohol from the unsaturated aldehyde is very difficult in most of the catalytic systems.In this work,ZnAl-hydrotalcite-supported cysteine-capped Au25 nanoclusters were used as the precatalysts for chemoselective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde to cinnamyl alcohol.The catalyst showed stable high selectivity(~95%)at prolonged reaction time and complete conversion of the substrate.According to the results of the control experiments,the in-situ DRIFTS of the substrate under high pressure of hydrogen and the 27Al MAS-NMR spectroscopy,we proposed that the difference of the preferential adsorption of the C=O bond to that of the C=C bond was derived from the nature of the support of the gold catalysts.展开更多
We used a dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)plasma technique to eliminate the protective ligand of ZnAl-hydrotalcite-supported gold nanoclusters.We used X-ray powder diffraction,ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry,th...We used a dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)plasma technique to eliminate the protective ligand of ZnAl-hydrotalcite-supported gold nanoclusters.We used X-ray powder diffraction,ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry,thermogravimetric analysis,and high angle annular dark-field-scanning transmission electron microscopy characterization to show that the samples pretreated with/without DBD-plasma displayed different performances in CO oxidation.The enhanced activity was obtained on the plasma-treated samples,implying that the protective ligand was effectively removed via the plasma technique.The crystal structure of the plasma-treated samples changed markedly,suggesting that the plasma treatment could not only break the chemical bond between the gold and the protective agent but could also decompose the interlayer ions over the hydrotalcite support.The particle sizes of the gold after DBD-plasma treatment implied that it was a good way to control the size of the gold nanoparticles under mild conditions.展开更多
Gold（I） thiolate compounds （i.e. AuLSR） are important precursors for the synthesis of atom- ically precise Aun（SR）m nanoclusters. However, the nature of the AuI-SR precursor remains elusive. Here, we report that...Gold（I） thiolate compounds （i.e. AuLSR） are important precursors for the synthesis of atom- ically precise Aun（SR）m nanoclusters. However, the nature of the AuI-SR precursor remains elusive. Here, we report that the Aul0（TBBT）10 complex is a universal precursor for the synthesis of Aun（TBBT）m nanoclusters （where TBBT 4-tertbutylbenzenethiol/thiolate）. Interestingly, the Aul0（TBBT）10 complex is also found to be re-generated through extended etching of the Aun（SR）m nanoclusters with excess of TBBT thiol and O2. The formation of well-defined Aul0（TBBT）10 complex, instead of polymeric AuKSR, is attributed to the bulkiness of the TBBT thiol. Through 1D and 2D NMR charcteriztions, the structure of Aul0（TBBT）10 is correlated with the previously reported X-ray structure, which contains two inter-penetrated Aus（TBBT）5 rings. The photophysical property of Au10（TBBT）10 complex is further probed by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. The acces- sibility of the precise Au10（TBBT）10 precursor improves the efficiency of the synthesis of the Aun（TBBT）m nanoclusters and is expected to further facilitate excellent control and understanding of the reaction mechanisms of nanocluster synthesis.展开更多
Although there are diverse bond features of Ti and O atoms,so far only several isomers have been reported for each(TiO_(2))n cluster.Instead of the widely used global optimization,in this work,we search for the low-ly...Although there are diverse bond features of Ti and O atoms,so far only several isomers have been reported for each(TiO_(2))n cluster.Instead of the widely used global optimization,in this work,we search for the low-lying isomers of(TiO_(2))_(n)(n=2-8)clusters with up to 10000 random sampling initial structures.These structures were optimized by the PM6 method,followed by density functional theory calculations.With this strategy,we have located many more low-lying isomers than thosereported previously.The number of isomers increases dramatically with the size of the cluster,and about 50 isomers were found for(TiO_(2))_(7) and(TiO_(2))_(8) with the energy within 30 kcal/mol.Furthermore,new lowest isomers have been located for(TiO_(2))_(5) and(TiO_(2))_(8),and isomers with three terminal oxygen atoms,five coordinated oxygen atoms as well as six coordinated titanium atoms have been located.Our work highlights the diverse structural features and a large number of isomers of small TiO_(2) clusters.展开更多
A systematic study on the structures and electronic properties of copper clusters has been performed using the density functional theory. In the calculation, there are many isomers near the ground state for small copp...A systematic study on the structures and electronic properties of copper clusters has been performed using the density functional theory. In the calculation, there are many isomers near the ground state for small copper clusters. Our results show that the three-dimensional isomers of copper clusters start from Cu7 cluster and then show a tendency to form more compact structures. The results of the formation energy and the second derivative of binding energy with duster size show that besides N = 8, N =11 is also a magic number. Furthermore, it is the first time to find that the ground state of 11-atom clusters is a biplanar structure as same as the 13-atom cluster. The clear odd-even alternation as cluster size for the formation energy indicates the stability of electronic close shell existed in the range studied.展开更多
Tin dioxide (SnO2) has attracted broad interest due to its particular gas-sensor property. Nano- or atom-scale SnO2 material has always been the aim in order to ultimately improve the sensitivity. However, until now, ...Tin dioxide (SnO2) has attracted broad interest due to its particular gas-sensor property. Nano- or atom-scale SnO2 material has always been the aim in order to ultimately improve the sensitivity. However, until now, it remains difficult to synthesize SnO2 nanoclusters by using traditional methods. In the present work, we have achieved the preparation of SnO2 nanoclusters by using the cluster beam deposition technique. The obtained nanoclusters were well characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscope HR-TEM. Results indicated the formation of the well-dispersed SnO2 nanoclusters with uniform size distribution (5-7 nm). Furthermore, an obvious metal insulator transition was observed by gating with ionic liquid. Combined with theory calculation, the corresponding mechanism was systematically analyzed from oxygen vacancy induced electron doping.展开更多
Although the many-body expansion(MBE)approach is widely applied to estimate the energy of large systems containing weak interactions,it is inapplicable to calculating the energies of covalent or metal clusters.In this...Although the many-body expansion(MBE)approach is widely applied to estimate the energy of large systems containing weak interactions,it is inapplicable to calculating the energies of covalent or metal clusters.In this work,we propose an interaction manybody expansion(IMBE)to calculate the energy of atomic clusters containing covalent bonds.In this approach,the energy of a system is expressed as the sum of the energy of atoms and the interaction energy between the atom and its surrounding atoms.The IMBE method is first applied to calculate the energies of nitrogen clusters,in which the interatomic interactions are truncated to four-body terms.The results show that the IMBE approach could significantly reduce the energy error for nitrogen clusters compared with the traditional MBE method.The weak size and structure dependence of the IMBE error with respect to DFT calculations indicates the IMBE method has good potential application in estimating energy of large covalent systems.展开更多
Atomically precise gold cluster catalysts have emerged as a new frontier in catalysis science,owing to their unexpected catalytic properties.In this work,we explore the evolution of the catalytic activity of clusters ...Atomically precise gold cluster catalysts have emerged as a new frontier in catalysis science,owing to their unexpected catalytic properties.In this work,we explore the evolution of the catalytic activity of clusters formed by the structural fusion of icosahedral Au13 units,namely Au25(SR)18,Au38(SR)24,and Au25(PPh3)10(SC2H4Ph)5Cl2,in the oxidation of pyrrolidine toγ-butyrolactam.We demonstrate that the structural fusion of icosahedral Au13 units,forming vertex-fused(vf),face-fused(ff),and body-fused(bf)clusters,can induce a decrease in the catalytic activity in the following order:Aubf>Auff>Auvf.The structural fusion of icosahedral Au13 units in the clusters does not distinguish the adsorption modes of pyrrolidine over the three clusters from each other,but modulates the chemical adsorption capacity and electronic properties of the three clusters,which is likely to be the key reason for the observed changes in catalytic reactivity.Our results are expected to be extendable to study and design atomically defined catalysts with elaborate structural patterns,in order to produce desired products.展开更多
While thiolate-protected Au nanoclusters （NCs） have drawn considerable interest in various fields, their poor stability in aqueous solution remains a major hurdle for practical applications. Here, we report a unique...While thiolate-protected Au nanoclusters （NCs） have drawn considerable interest in various fields, their poor stability in aqueous solution remains a major hurdle for practical applications. Here, we report a unique strategy based on ligand-shell engineering to improve the stability of thiolated Au NCs in solution. By employing two thiol-terminated ligands having oppositely charged functional groups on the surface of the NCs, we demonstrate that the electrostatic attraction between the oppositely charged functional groups of neighboring ligands could amplify the coordination among surface ligands, leading to the formation of pseudo-cage-like structures on the NC surface that could offer higher protection to the Au core in aqueous solution. The strategy developed in this study could be extended to toward practical applications. other metal NCs, further paving the way展开更多
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(51371202,51531005,51421001,51501021)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(106112017CDJQJ138803)
基金Project(51074087)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(201102088)supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province,China+1 种基金Project(LJQ2011065)supported by Liaoning Excellent Talents in University,ChinaProject(2010921096)supported by Liaoning Baiqianwan Talents Program,China
文摘The electric pulse modification （EP, EPM） of liquid metal is a novel method for grain refinement. The structure of EP-modified Al-5%Cu melt was characterized by high-temperature X-ray diffractometry. The results show that the Cu-containing Al clusters remarkably increase in the EP-modified melt, furthermore, these clusters in that case tend to contract due to the decrease of relevant atomic radius and the co-ordination number. This kind of liquid-phase structure leads to a more homogeneous Cu-rich phase distribution in the final solidification structure. Differential scanning calorimetry （DSC） tests indicate that the solidification super-cooling degree of the EP-modified liquid phase is 2.36 times that of the unmodified. These facts suggest that the atom cluster changes in EP-modified Al-5%Cu melt would disagree with that by EPM model previously proposed in liquid pure metal.
基金Project(51071065)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(20100161110001)supported by the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China
文摘The rapid solidification processes of liquid Cu56Zr44 alloys at different cooling rates （γ） were simulated by a molecular dynamics （MD） method. In order to assess the influence of cooling rate on the clustering tendency and degree towards icosahedrons, a ten-indices＇ cluster-type index method was suggested to characterize the local atomic structures in the super-cooled liquid and the rapidly solidified solid. And their clustering and ordering degrees as well as the packing density of ieosahedral clusters were also evaluated by an icosahedral clustering degree （fI）, the chemical order parameter （ηαβ） and densification coefficients （D0, DI and DIS）, respectively. Results show that the main local atomic configurations in Cu56Zr44 alloy system are Z12 clusters centered by Cu, and most of which are （12 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0） standard icosahedra and （12 0 8 0 0 0 2 2 0 0） as well as （12 2 8 2 0 0 0 0 0 0） defective icosahedra. Below glass transition temperature （Tg）, these icosahedral clusters will be coalesced to various icosahedral medium-range orders （IMROs） by IS linkages, namely, icosahedral bond, and their number N, size n, order parameter ηαβ as well as spatial distributions vary with y. As the cooling rate exceeds the critical value （γc） at which a glassy transition can take place, a lower cooling rate, e.g., γ1=10^1K/ns, is demonstrated to be favorable to uplift the number of icosahedra and enlarge the size of IMROs compared with the higher cooling rates, e.g., γ5=10^5 K/ns, and their packing density and clustering degree towards icosahedra in the rapidly solidified solid can also benefit from the slow cooling process.
文摘Chemoselective hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehyde to unsaturated alcohol has attracted growing interests in recent years due to its widespread applications in fine chemicals.However,the hydrogenation of the C=O bond was thermodynamically and kinetically unfavorable over the hydrogenation of the C=C bond.Thus,to obtain the unsaturated alcohol from the unsaturated aldehyde is very difficult in most of the catalytic systems.In this work,ZnAl-hydrotalcite-supported cysteine-capped Au25 nanoclusters were used as the precatalysts for chemoselective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde to cinnamyl alcohol.The catalyst showed stable high selectivity(~95%)at prolonged reaction time and complete conversion of the substrate.According to the results of the control experiments,the in-situ DRIFTS of the substrate under high pressure of hydrogen and the 27Al MAS-NMR spectroscopy,we proposed that the difference of the preferential adsorption of the C=O bond to that of the C=C bond was derived from the nature of the support of the gold catalysts.
文摘We used a dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)plasma technique to eliminate the protective ligand of ZnAl-hydrotalcite-supported gold nanoclusters.We used X-ray powder diffraction,ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry,thermogravimetric analysis,and high angle annular dark-field-scanning transmission electron microscopy characterization to show that the samples pretreated with/without DBD-plasma displayed different performances in CO oxidation.The enhanced activity was obtained on the plasma-treated samples,implying that the protective ligand was effectively removed via the plasma technique.The crystal structure of the plasma-treated samples changed markedly,suggesting that the plasma treatment could not only break the chemical bond between the gold and the protective agent but could also decompose the interlayer ions over the hydrotalcite support.The particle sizes of the gold after DBD-plasma treatment implied that it was a good way to control the size of the gold nanoparticles under mild conditions.
基金supported by the U.S.National Science Foundation(DMR-1808675)
文摘Gold（I） thiolate compounds （i.e. AuLSR） are important precursors for the synthesis of atom- ically precise Aun（SR）m nanoclusters. However, the nature of the AuI-SR precursor remains elusive. Here, we report that the Aul0（TBBT）10 complex is a universal precursor for the synthesis of Aun（TBBT）m nanoclusters （where TBBT 4-tertbutylbenzenethiol/thiolate）. Interestingly, the Aul0（TBBT）10 complex is also found to be re-generated through extended etching of the Aun（SR）m nanoclusters with excess of TBBT thiol and O2. The formation of well-defined Aul0（TBBT）10 complex, instead of polymeric AuKSR, is attributed to the bulkiness of the TBBT thiol. Through 1D and 2D NMR charcteriztions, the structure of Aul0（TBBT）10 is correlated with the previously reported X-ray structure, which contains two inter-penetrated Aus（TBBT）5 rings. The photophysical property of Au10（TBBT）10 complex is further probed by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. The acces- sibility of the precise Au10（TBBT）10 precursor improves the efficiency of the synthesis of the Aun（TBBT）m nanoclusters and is expected to further facilitate excellent control and understanding of the reaction mechanisms of nanocluster synthesis.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.92061114 and No.21873096)the Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDB17010200)。
文摘Although there are diverse bond features of Ti and O atoms,so far only several isomers have been reported for each(TiO_(2))n cluster.Instead of the widely used global optimization,in this work,we search for the low-lying isomers of(TiO_(2))_(n)(n=2-8)clusters with up to 10000 random sampling initial structures.These structures were optimized by the PM6 method,followed by density functional theory calculations.With this strategy,we have located many more low-lying isomers than thosereported previously.The number of isomers increases dramatically with the size of the cluster,and about 50 isomers were found for(TiO_(2))_(7) and(TiO_(2))_(8) with the energy within 30 kcal/mol.Furthermore,new lowest isomers have been located for(TiO_(2))_(5) and(TiO_(2))_(8),and isomers with three terminal oxygen atoms,five coordinated oxygen atoms as well as six coordinated titanium atoms have been located.Our work highlights the diverse structural features and a large number of isomers of small TiO_(2) clusters.
文摘A systematic study on the structures and electronic properties of copper clusters has been performed using the density functional theory. In the calculation, there are many isomers near the ground state for small copper clusters. Our results show that the three-dimensional isomers of copper clusters start from Cu7 cluster and then show a tendency to form more compact structures. The results of the formation energy and the second derivative of binding energy with duster size show that besides N = 8, N =11 is also a magic number. Furthermore, it is the first time to find that the ground state of 11-atom clusters is a biplanar structure as same as the 13-atom cluster. The clear odd-even alternation as cluster size for the formation energy indicates the stability of electronic close shell existed in the range studied.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.11704325,No.11604288,and No.11774178)the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(BK20170473,BK20160061)the Joint Open Fund of Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Ecological Building Material and Environmental Protection Equipment and Key Laboratory for Advanced Technology in Environmental Protection of Jiangsu Province(JH201843)
文摘Tin dioxide (SnO2) has attracted broad interest due to its particular gas-sensor property. Nano- or atom-scale SnO2 material has always been the aim in order to ultimately improve the sensitivity. However, until now, it remains difficult to synthesize SnO2 nanoclusters by using traditional methods. In the present work, we have achieved the preparation of SnO2 nanoclusters by using the cluster beam deposition technique. The obtained nanoclusters were well characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscope HR-TEM. Results indicated the formation of the well-dispersed SnO2 nanoclusters with uniform size distribution (5-7 nm). Furthermore, an obvious metal insulator transition was observed by gating with ionic liquid. Combined with theory calculation, the corresponding mechanism was systematically analyzed from oxygen vacancy induced electron doping.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21773297,No.21973108,and No.21921004)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21805258)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21973107)。
文摘Although the many-body expansion(MBE)approach is widely applied to estimate the energy of large systems containing weak interactions,it is inapplicable to calculating the energies of covalent or metal clusters.In this work,we propose an interaction manybody expansion(IMBE)to calculate the energy of atomic clusters containing covalent bonds.In this approach,the energy of a system is expressed as the sum of the energy of atoms and the interaction energy between the atom and its surrounding atoms.The IMBE method is first applied to calculate the energies of nitrogen clusters,in which the interatomic interactions are truncated to four-body terms.The results show that the IMBE approach could significantly reduce the energy error for nitrogen clusters compared with the traditional MBE method.The weak size and structure dependence of the IMBE error with respect to DFT calculations indicates the IMBE method has good potential application in estimating energy of large covalent systems.
文摘Atomically precise gold cluster catalysts have emerged as a new frontier in catalysis science,owing to their unexpected catalytic properties.In this work,we explore the evolution of the catalytic activity of clusters formed by the structural fusion of icosahedral Au13 units,namely Au25(SR)18,Au38(SR)24,and Au25(PPh3)10(SC2H4Ph)5Cl2,in the oxidation of pyrrolidine toγ-butyrolactam.We demonstrate that the structural fusion of icosahedral Au13 units,forming vertex-fused(vf),face-fused(ff),and body-fused(bf)clusters,can induce a decrease in the catalytic activity in the following order:Aubf>Auff>Auvf.The structural fusion of icosahedral Au13 units in the clusters does not distinguish the adsorption modes of pyrrolidine over the three clusters from each other,but modulates the chemical adsorption capacity and electronic properties of the three clusters,which is likely to be the key reason for the observed changes in catalytic reactivity.Our results are expected to be extendable to study and design atomically defined catalysts with elaborate structural patterns,in order to produce desired products.
文摘While thiolate-protected Au nanoclusters （NCs） have drawn considerable interest in various fields, their poor stability in aqueous solution remains a major hurdle for practical applications. Here, we report a unique strategy based on ligand-shell engineering to improve the stability of thiolated Au NCs in solution. By employing two thiol-terminated ligands having oppositely charged functional groups on the surface of the NCs, we demonstrate that the electrostatic attraction between the oppositely charged functional groups of neighboring ligands could amplify the coordination among surface ligands, leading to the formation of pseudo-cage-like structures on the NC surface that could offer higher protection to the Au core in aqueous solution. The strategy developed in this study could be extended to toward practical applications. other metal NCs, further paving the way
