Tiago Vinicius Alves

Plasmonic Nanorattles as Next-Generation Catalysts for Surface Plasmon Resonance-Mediated Oxidations Promoted by Activated Oxygen

Nanorattles, comprised of a nanosphere inside a nanoshell, were employed as the next generation of plasmonic catalysts for oxidations promoted by activated O2 . After investigating how the presence of a nanosphere inside a nanoshell affected the electric-field enhancements in the nanorattle relative to a nanoshell and a nanosphere, the SPR-mediated oxidation of p-aminothiophenol (PATP) functionalized at their surface was investigated to benchmark how these different electric-field intensities affected the performances of Au@AgAu nanorattles, AgAu nanoshells and Au nanoparticles having similar sizes. The high performance of the nanorattles enabled the visible-light driven synthesis of azobenzene from aniline under ambient conditions. As the nanorattles allow the formation of electromagnetic hot spots without relying on the uncontrolled aggregation of nanostructures, it enables their application as catalysts in liquid phase under mild conditions using visible light as the main energy input.

Calcium-containing diatomic dications in the gas phase.

Sputtering (ion surface bombardment) of various calcium-containing powder samples with an energetic (17 keV), high-current (16)O(-) beam has produced the diatomic dications of CaSi(2+), CaP(2+), CaF(2+), CaH(2+), CaCl(2+), CaBr(2+) and CaI(2+). These molecular gas-phase species have been identified in positive ion mass spectra at half-integer m/z values; their ion flight times through a magnetic-sector mass spectrometer were roughly 10(-5) s. Most of them appear to be novel molecular ions; the stability of the latter four (CaH(2+), CaCl(2+), CaBr(2+) and CaI(2+)) had been demonstrated in previous theoretical studies, whereas only CaF(2+) and CaBr(2+) had been observed before. Here we combine the results of our experimental search with a detailed theoretical study of the remaining three systems CaSi(2+), CaP(2+) and CaF(2+). All electronic states correlating with the first dissociation channel are characterized using high level ab initio electronic structure calculations. In their ground states, we find CaSi(2+) to be a long-lived metastable molecule, whereas CaF(2+) and CaP(2+) are thermodynamically stable, with respective equilibrium internuclear distances of 6.253, 4.740, and 5.731 a(0). CaSi(2+) has a well depth of 7116 (0.88) cm(-1) (eV) and a dissociation asymptote 7956 (0.99) cm(-1) (eV) below the ground state minimum. The dissociation energy of CaF(2+) is estimated to be 3404 (0.42) cm(-1) (eV), whereas for CaP(2+) we found 2547 (0.32) cm(-1) (eV), and a barrier height of 8118 (1.01) cm(-1) (eV). Their adiabatic double ionisation energies are 22.87, 16.91, and 17.32 eV, respectively, for the F, Si, and P containing dications.

Theoretical Design and Experimental Realization of Quasi‐Single Electron Enhancement in Plasmonic Catalysis

By a combination of theoretical and experimental design, we probed the effect of a quasi-single electron on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-mediated catalytic activities of Ag nanoparticles. Specifically, we started by theoretically investigating how the E-field distribution around the surface of a Ag nanosphere was influenced by static electric field induced by one, two, or three extra fixed electrons embedded in graphene oxide (GO) next to the Ag nanosphere. We found that the presence of the extra electron(s) changed the E-field distributions and led to higher electric field intensities. Then, we experimentally observed that a quasi-single electron trapped at the interface between GO and Ag NPs in Ag NPs supported on graphene oxide (GO-Ag NPs) led to higher catalytic activities as compared to Ag and GO-Ag NPs without electrons trapped at the interface, representing the first observation of catalytic enhancement promoted by a quasi-single electron.

Kinetic Isotope Effects in Multipath VTST: Application to a Hydrogen Abstraction Reaction

In this work we apply multipath canonical variational transition state theory with small-tunneling corrections (MP-CVT/SCT) to the hydrogen abstraction reaction from ethanol by atomic hydrogen in aqueous solution at room temperature. This reaction presents two transition states which can interconvert by internal rotations about single bonds and another two transition states that are non-interconvertible enantiomers to the former structures. The study also includes another three reactions with isotopically substituted species for which there are experimental values of thermal rate constants and kinetic isotope effects (KIEs). The agreement between the MP-CVT/SCT thermal rate constants and the experimental data is good. The KIEs obtained by the MP-CVT/SCT methodology are factorized in terms of individual transition state contributions to facilitate the analysis. It was found that the percentage contribution of each transition state to the total KIE is independent of the isotopic substitution.

Structural and spectroscopic properties of the diazocarbene radical (CNN) and its ions CNN+ and CNN−: a high-level theoretical investigation

The diazocarbene radical, CNN, and the ions CNN+ and CNN− were investigated at a high level of theory. Very accurate structural parameters for the states X 3Σ− and A 3Π of CNN, and X 2Π of both CNN+ and CNN− were obtained with the UCCSD(T) method using correlated-consistent basis functions with extrapolations to the complete basis set limit, with valence only and also with all electrons correlated. Harmonic and anharmonic frequencies were obtained for all species and the Renner parameter and average frequencies evaluated for the Π states. At the UCCSD(T)/CBST-5 level of theory, Δf H(0 K) = 138.89 kcal/mol and Δf H(298 K) = 139.65 kcal/mol were obtained for diazocarbene; for the ionization potential and the electron affinity of CNN, 10.969 eV (252.95 kcal/mol), and 1.743 eV (40.19 kcal/mol), respectively, are predicted. Geometry optimization was also carried out with the CASSCF/MRCI/CBST-5 approach for the states X 3Σ−, A 3Π, and a 1Δ of CNN, and with the CASSCF/MRSDCI/aug-cc-pVTZ approach for the states b 1Σ+, c 1Π, d 1Σ−, and B 3Σ−, and excitation energies (Te) evaluated. Vertical energies were calculated for 15 electronic states, thus improving on the accuracy of the five transitions already described, and allowing for a reliable overview of a manifold of other states, which is expected to guide future spectroscopic experiments. This study corroborates the experimental assignment for the vertical transition X 3Σ− ← E 3Π.