Maria Alfredsson

J-ICE: a new Jmol interface for handling and visualizing crystallographic and electronic properties

The growth in complexity of quantum mechanical software packages for modelling the physicochemical properties of crystalline materials may hinder their usability by the vast majority of non-specialized users. Consequently, a free operating-system-independent graphical user interface (GUI) has been developed to drive the most common simulation packages for treating both molecules and solids. In order to maintain maximum portability and graphical efficiency, the popular molecular graphics engine Jmol, written in the portable Java language, has been combined with a specialized GUI encoded in HTML and JavaScript. This framework, called J-ICE, allows users to visualize, build and manipulate complex input or output results (derived from modelling) entirely via a web server, i.e. without the burden of installing complex packages. This solution also dramatically speeds up both the development procedure and bug fixing. Among the range of software appropriate for modelling condensed matter, the focus of J-ICE is currently only on CRYSTAL09 and VASP.

The high-pressure phase diagram of ammonia dihydrate

We have investigated the P–T phase diagram of ammonia dihydrate (ADH), ND3·2D2O, using powder neutron diffraction methods over the range 0–9 GPa, 170–300 K. In addition to the ambient pressure phase, ADH I, we have identified three high-pressure phases, ADH II, III, and IV, each of which has been reproduced in at least three separate experiments. Another, apparently body-centred-cubic, phase of ADH has been observed on a single occasion above 6 GPa at 170 K. The existence of a dehydration boundary has been confirmed where, upon compression or warming, ADH IV decomposes to a high-pressure ice phase (ice VII or VIII) and a high-pressure phase of ammonia monohydrate (AMH V or VI).

Modeling the framework stability and catalytic activity of pure and transition metal-doped zeotypes

We present a thorough computational study of transition metal-doped zeolite and aluminophosphate (AIPO) frameworks. The structural and electronic chemistry of the dopants is examined with ab initio quantum mechanical calculations, and the results correlated with the Bronsted and Lewis acid strength, and with the redox potential of the dopant ions in the framework. The energetics of doping is provided, and is employed to analyze the mode of dopant incorporation, and its site ordering in the microporous framework. In total, 23 dopant ions are examined in the isostructural framework of chabasite and AlPO-34. These cover most of the isomorphous framework replacements known to occur experimentally, but also framework replacements that have not yet been achieved. In this case, ab initio modeling techniques are employed in a predictive way. Finally, we present a computational study of the alkene epoxidation on titanosilicates, that covers the whole catalytic cycle

The thermoelastic properties of MgSO4·7D2O (epsomite) from powder neutron diffraction and ab initio calculation

time-of-flight powder neutron diffraction has been used to measure the molar volume of MgSO4.7D(2)O (i) from 1.8 - 300 K at ambient pressure, (ii) from 50 - 290 K at 1.4, 3.0, and 4.5 kbar, (iii) from 0 - 5.5 kbar at 290 K, and (iv) from 0 - 4.5 kbar at 50 K. The data have allowed us to determine the temperature dependence of the incompressibility, (partial derivative K/partial derivative T)(p), (thermodynamically equivalent to the pressure dependence of the thermal expansion, (partial derivative alpha/partial derivative P)(T)) of epsomite throughout its stability field. We observed that the a-axis exhibits negative thermal expansion, alpha(a), from 30 - 250 K at room pressure, turning positive above 250 K and being zero below 30 K. However, each of the crystallographic axes exhibits a sharp change in (partial derivative alpha/partial derivative T) at similar to 125 K, and this appears to correspond to significant changes in the axial incompressibilities with the a- and c-axes softening, and the b-axis stiffening considerably below similar to 125 K. Our thermoelastic results are in agreement with ab initio calculations at zero Kelvin; however the calculations offer no obvious insight into the mechanism responsible for the change in behaviour at low temperature.

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of the structural properties and the B1-B2 phase transition of MgO

We report diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) calculations on MgO in the rock-salt and CsCl structures. The calculations are based on Hartree-Fock pseudopotentials, with the single-particle orbitals entering the correlated wave function being represented by a systematically convergeable cubic-spline basis. Systematic tests are presented on system-size errors using periodically repeating cells of up to over 600 atoms. The equilibrium lattice parameter of the rocksalt structure obtained within DMC is almost identical to the Hartree-Fock result, which is close to the experimental value. The DMC result for the bulk modulus is also in good agreement with the experimental value. The B1-B2 transition pressure (between the rocksalt and CsCl structures) is predicted to be just below 600 GPa, which is beyond the experimentally accessible range, in accord with other predictions based on Hartree-Fock and density functional theories.

No evidence for large-scale proton ordering in Antarctic ice from powder neutron diffraction

We have examined a sample of 3000 year old Antarctic ice, collected at the Kohnen Station, by time-of-flight powder neutron diffraction to test the hypothesis of Fukazawa et al. [e.g., Ann. Glaciol. 31, 247 (2000)] that such ice may be partially proton ordered. Great care was taken to keep our sample below the proposed ordering temperature (237 K) at all times, but we did not observe any evidence of proton ordering.

Structural and magnetic phase transitions in simple oxides using hybrid functionals

We present the structural as well as elastic properties of the alkaline earth oxides and FeO, calculated using hybrid exchange functionals within DFT. We show that by empirically fitting the amount of Fock-exchange in the hybrid functionals, we can accurately reproduce the pressure-induced phase transitions for MgO, CaO, SrO and BaO. For FeO the hybrid functionals predict an insulator↔metal transition at ca. 150 GPa, associated with an i-B8↔B8 structural phase transition. The structural phase transition is accompanied by a spin transition from a high- to low-spin electron configuration on the Fe2+ ions. Hence, FeO undergoes a magnetic phase transition from an anti-ferromagnetic to non-magnetic structure. We also find that as the ionicity of the polymorphs increases a higher fraction of Fock-exchange is required to reproduce the structural volumes reported from experiments.

Elastic and Vibrational Properties of alpha- and beta-PbO

The structure, electronic and dynamic properties of the two layered alpha (litharge) and beta (massicot) phases of PbO have been studied by density functional methods. The role of London dispersion interactions as leading component of the total interaction energy between layers has been addressed by using the Grimmes approach, in which new parameters for Pb and O atoms have been developed. Both gradient corrected and hybrid functionals have been adopted using Gaussian-type basis sets of polarized triple zeta quality for O atoms and small core pseudo-potential for the Pb atoms. Basis set superposition error (BSSE) has been accounted for by the Boys-Bernardi correction to compute the interlayer separation. Cross check with calculations adopting plane waves that are BSSE free have also been performed for both structures and vibrational frequencies. With the new set of proposed Grimmes type parameters structures and dynamical parameters for both PbO phases are in good agreement with experimental data.

THE USE OF A POINT POLARIZABLE DIPOLE IN INTERMOLECULAR POTENTIALS FOR WATER

The total dipole moment of a pair of isolated water molecules that employ a point polarizable dipole is compared with the total dipole moment obtained from MP4 calculations for the same intermolecular orientation and distance. At all reasonable intermolecular distances, the point dipole models give total dipole moments that are generally in very good agreement with MP4. This suggests that the point polarizable dipole approximation for water is reasonable and that the high dipole moments obtained frequently in molecular simulations of polarizable water must be attributed to something other than the inadequacy of the point dipole approximation.

A combined molecular dynamics–ab initio study of H2 adsorption on ideal, relaxed, and temperature-reconstructed MgO(111) surfaces

2D periodic ab initio calculations have been performed for H-2 interacting with a temperature-reconstructed MgO(lll) surface, created from a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation at 300 K. The tempera ...