School Of Basic And Applied Sciences
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Item Ab Initio Modeling of the ZnO-Cu(111) Interface(American Chemical Society, 2021-12-31T00:00:00) Mondal, Krishnakanta; Megha; Banerjee, Arup; Fortunelli, Alessandro; Walter, Michael; Moseler, MichaelThe morphology at the catalytically active interfacial site of ZnO/Cu in the commercial ZnO/Cu/Al2O3 catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol is still an open question. In the present study, we employ ab initio density functional theory based methods to gain insight into the structure of the ZnO-Cu interface by investigating the morphology of supported ZnO nano-ribbons at the interface with the Cu(111) surface in the presence of hydrogen and water molecules. We find that the stabilities of free-standing ZnO nano-ribbons get enhanced when they are supported on the Cu(111) surface. These supported nano-ribbons are further stabilized by the adsorption of hydrogen atoms on the top of O atoms of the nano-ribbons. Interestingly, the hydrogenated nano-ribbons are found to be equally stable and they appear to be an array of independent chains of ZnOH motifs, suggesting that the hydrogenated nano-ribbons are structurally fluxional. The edge of these fluxional nano-ribbons is stabilized via a triangular reconstruction with a basic composition of Zn6O7H7 in the presence of water molecules. Such a triangular structure gets further stabilized when it is attached to a bulk-like part of the ZnO/Cu(111) system. Furthermore, we find that the triangular reconstruction is energetically favorable even at the methanol synthesis conditions. Therefore, we propose that, under methanol synthesis conditions, the motif Zn6O7H7 represents a stable form at the interface between the bulk-like part of ZnO and the Cu(111) surface in the ZnO/Cu/Al2O3 based commercial catalyst. � 2021 American Chemical SocietyItem Adsorption and Activation of CO2on Small-Sized Cu-Zr Bimetallic Clusters(American Chemical Society, 2021-03-17T00:00:00) Megha; Mondal, Krishnakanta; Ghanty, Tapan K.; Banerjee, ArupAdsorption and activation of CO2 is a key step in any chemical reaction, which aims to convert it to other useful chemicals. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that drive the activation process and also search for materials that promote the process. We employ the density functional theory to explore the possibility of using small-sized bimetallic Cu-Zr clusters, Cu4-nZrn, with n = 1-3 for the above-mentioned key step. Our results suggest that after adsorption, a CO2 molecule preferably resides on Zr atoms or at the bridge and triangular faces formed by Zr atoms in bimetallic Cu-Zr clusters accompanied with its high degree of activation. Importantly, maximum activation occurs when CO2 is adsorbed on the CuZr3 cluster. Interestingly, we find that the adsorption energy of CO2 can be tuned by varying the extent of the Zr atom in Cu-Zr clusters. We rationalize the high adsorption of CO2 with the increase in the number of Zr atoms using the d-band center model and the concept of chemical hardness. The strong chemisorption and high activation of CO2 are ascribed to charge migration between Cu-Zr clusters and the CO2 molecule. We find an additional band in the infrared vibrational spectra of CO2 chemisorbed on all of the clusters, which is absent in the case of free CO2. We also observe that the energy barriers for the direct dissociation of the CO2 molecule to CO and O decrease significantly on bimetallic Cu-Zr clusters as compared to that on pure Cu4. In particular, the barrier heights are considerably small for Cu3Zr and CuZr3 clusters. This study demonstrates that Cu3Zr and CuZr3 clusters may serve as good candidates for activation and dissociation of the CO2 molecule. � 2021 American Chemical Society.Item Energy-transfer quantum dynamics of HeH+with He atoms: Rotationally inelastic cross sections and rate coefficients(American Institute of Physics Inc., 2021-02-04T00:00:00) Gianturco, F.A.; Giri, K.; Gonz�lez-S�nchez, L.; Yurtsever, E.; Sathyamurthy, N.; Wester, R.Two different ab initio potential energy surfaces are employed to investigate the efficiency of the rotational excitation channels for the polar molecular ion HeH+ interacting with He atoms. We further use them to investigate the quantum dynamics of both the proton-exchange reaction and the purely rotational inelastic collisions over a broad range of temperatures. In current modeling studies, this cation is considered to be one of the possible cooling sources under early universe conditions after the recombination era and has recently been found to exist in the interstellar medium. The results from the present calculations are able to show the large efficiency of the state-changing channels involving rotational states of this cation. In fact, we find them to be similar in size and behavior to the inelastic and reaction rate coefficients obtained in previous studies, where H atoms were employed as projectiles. The same rotational excitation processes, occurring when free electrons are the collision partners of this cation, are also compared with the present findings. The relative importance of the reactive, proton-exchange channel and the purely inelastic channels is also analyzed and discussed. The rotational de-excitation processes are also investigated for the cooling kinetics of the present cation under cold trap conditions with He as the buffer gas. The implications of the present results for setting up more comprehensive numerical models to describe the chemical evolution networks in different environments are briefly discussed. � 2021 Author(s).Item Ag-S Type Quantum Dots versus Superatom Nanocatalyst: A Single Sulfur Atom Modulated Decarboxylative Radical Cascade Reaction(American Chemical Society, 2023-04-06T00:00:00) Meena, Sangeeta; Dastider, Saptarshi G.; Nishad, Chandra Shekhar; Jangid, Dilip Kumar; Kumar, Pankaj; Khirid, Samreet; Bose, Shubhankar Kumar; Mondal, Krishnakanta; Banerjee, Biplab; Dhayal, Rajendra S.The preparation of high-nuclearity silver nanoclusters in quantitative yield remains exclusive and their potential applications in the catalysis of organic reactions are still undeveloped. Here, we have synthesized a quantum dot (QD)-based catalyst, [Ag62S13(SBut)32](PF6)4 (denoted as Ag62S12-S) in excellent yield that enables the direct synthesis of pharmaceutically precious 3,4-dihydroquinolinone in 92% via a decarboxylative radical cascade reaction of cinnamamide with ?-oxocarboxylic acid under mild reaction conditions. In comparison, a superatom [Ag62S12(SBut)32](PF6)2 (denoted as Ag62S12) with identical surface anatomy and size, but without a central S2- atom in the core, gives an improved yield (95%) in a short time and exhibits higher reactivity. Multiple characterization techniques (single-crystal X-ray diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance (1H and 31P), electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis) confirm the formation of Ag62S12-S. The BET results expose the total active surface area in supporting a single e- transfer reaction mechanism. Density functional theory reveals that leaving the central S atom of Ag62S12-S leads to higher charge transfer from Ag62S12 to the reactant, accelerates the decarboxylation process, and correlates the catalytic properties with the structure of the nanocatalyst. � 2023 American Chemical Society.Item Ultra-narrow blue phosphorene nanoribbons for tunable optoelectronics(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017) Swaroop, Ram; Ahluwalia, P. K.; Tankeshwar, K.; Kumar, AshokWe report optoelectronic properties of ultra-narrow blue phosphorene nanoribbons (BPNRs) within the state-of-the-art density functional theory framework. The positive but small value of formation energy (?0.1 eV per atom) indicates the relative ease of the formation of BPNRs from their two-dimensional (2D) counterpart. The oscillatory behaviour of the electronic band gap of bare BPNRs with increasing width is attributed to the reconstruction of edge atoms. The static dielectric constant of BPNRs depends on the width and applied strain which in turn shows consistency with the Penn's model expression for semiconductors. Bare BPNRs exhibit both ? and ? + ? plasmonic structures while passivated ones possess only a ? + ? plasmonic structure that get blue-shifted (as large as ?3 eV) on increasing the width of the BPNRs which makes electron energy loss spectroscopy useful for identifying the width of BPNRs in real experimental situations. The mechanical strain induces a small red shift in, which is attributed to the modification in electronic band dispersion due to a different superposition of atomic orbitals on the application of applied strain. These tunable electronic and dielectric properties of BPNRs mean they may find applications in optoelectronic devices based on blue phosphorene. ? The Royal Society of Chemistry.