Theoretical prediction of low-energy photoelectron spectra of AlnNi- clusters (n = 1-13).

CONTEXT: Mixed-metal clusters have long been studied because of their peculiar properties and how they change with cluster size, composition, and charge state and their potential roles in catalysis. The characterization of these clusters is therefore a very important issue. One of the main experimental tools for characterizing their electronic structure is photoelectron spectroscopy. Theoretical computation completes the task by fully determining the structural properties and matching the theoretical predictions to the measured spectra. We present density functional theory computations of the structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of negatively charged mixed AlnNi- clusters with up to 13 Al atoms. The lowest energy structures of the anionic clusters with up to 7 atoms are also found to be low-energy isomers of the neutral counterparts found in the literature. The 13-atom cluster is found to be a quartet and a perfect icosahedron. The predicted photoelectron spectra are also presented and can be used to interpret future experimental data. We also presented indicators that can be used to determine the potential of these systems for single-atom catalysis. These indicators point to smaller clusters to be more reactive as the gap between the Fermi energy and the center of the d-band increases with cluster size and that Ni occupies an internal site for n = 11-13. We speculate that reactivity can be enhanced if one adds an additional Ni atom. METHODS: The DFT calculations were performed using the Becke exchange and Perdew-Wang/91 correlation functionals (BPW91), a DFT-optimized all-electron basis set for the aluminum atom, and the Stuttgart small core pseudopotential for the Ni atom. All of the computations used the Gaussian 03 software.

Electron Binding Energy Spectra of AlnPt- Clusters─A Combined Experimental and Computational Study.

Results of size-selected electron photo-detachment experiments and density functional theory calculations on anionic AlnPt-, n = 1-7, clusters are presented and analyzed. The measured and calculated spectra of electron binding energies are, overall, in excellent accord with each other. The analysis reveals the general importance of accounting for the multiplicity of structural forms of a given-size cluster that can contribute to its measured spectrum, especially when the clusters are fluxional and/or the conditions of the experiment allow for structural transitions. We show that for the systems studied here, the size-specific peculiarities of the measured spectra can be understood in terms of the combined contributions of corresponding different accessible stable equilibrium conformations, bona-fide transition-state configurations, and electronic-crossing structures that may play the role of effective barriers in electronically nonadiabatic dynamics.

Predicting the Photoelectron Spectra of Quasi Octahedral Al6Mo- Cluster.

We have recently developed a computational methodology to separate the effects of size, composition, symmetry and fluxionality in explaining the experimental photoelectron spectra of mixed-metal clusters. This methodology was successfully applied first in explaining the observed differences between the spectra of Al13- and Al12Ni- and more recently to explain the measured spectra of AlnMo-, n=3-5,7 clusters. The combination of our approach and new synthesis techniques can be used to prepare cluster-based materials with tunable properties. In this work we use the methodology to predict the spectrum of Al6Mo-. This system was chosen because its neutral counterpart is a perfect octahedron and it is distorted to a D3d symmetry and was not observed in the recent experiments. This high symmetry cluster bridges the less symmetric Al5Mo- and Al7Mo-structures.The measured spectra of Al5Mo- has well defined peaks, while that of Al7Mo-does not. This can be explained by the fluxionality of Al7Mo-, as at least 6 different structures lie within the range that can be reached by thermal effects. We predict that Al6Mo- has well defined peaks, but some broadening is expected as there are two low-lying isomers, one of D3d and the second of D3h symmetry that are only 0.052 eV apart.

Polaron Properties in Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons.

By means of a 2-D tight-binding model with lattice relaxation in a first-order expansion, we report different polaron properties depending on the armchair graphene nanoribbons width family as well as on its size. We find that representatives of the 3p+2 family do not present a polaronic-mediated charge transport. As for 3p and 3p+1 families, the polaron behavior was completely dependent on the system's width. In particular, we observed a greater degree of delocalization for broader nanoribbons; narrower nanoribbons of both families, on the contrary, typically presented a more localized polaronic-type transport. Energy levels and occupation numbers analysis are performed to rigorously assess the nature of the charge carrier. Time evolution in the scope of the Ehrenfest molecular dynamics was also carried out to confirm the collective behavior and stability of the carrier as a function of time. We were able to determine that polarons in nanoribbons of 3p family present higher mobility than those in 3p+1 nanoribbons. These results identify the transport process that takes place for each system, and they allow the prediction of the mobility of the charge carriers as a function of the structural properties of the system, thus providing guidance on how to improve the efficiency of graphene nanoribbon-based devices.

Low-Temperature Seebeck Coefficients for Polaron-Driven Thermoelectric Effect in Organic Polymers.

We report the results of electronic structure coupled to molecular dynamics simulations on organic polymers subject to a temperature gradient at low-temperature regimes. The temperature gradient is introduced using a Langevin-type dynamics corrected for quantum effects, which are very important in these systems. Under this condition we were able to determine that in these no-impurity systems the Seebeck coefficient is in the range of 1-3 µV/K. These results are in good agreement with reported experimental results under the same low-temperature conditions.

Silver- and gold-mediated nucleobase bonding.

We report the results of a density functional theory investigation of the bonding of nucleobases mediated by silver and gold atoms in the gas phase. Our calculations use the Becke exchange and Perdew-Wang correlation functional (BPW91) combined with the Stuttgart effective core potentials to represent the valence electrons of gold, silver, and platinum, and the all-electron DGTZVP basis set for C, H, N, and O. This combination was chosen based on tests on the metal atoms and tautomers of adenine, cytosine, and guanine. To establish a benchmark to understand the metal-mediated bonding, we calculated the binding energy of each of the base pairs in their canonical forms. Our calculations show rather strong bonds between the Watson-Crick base pairs when compared with typical values for N-H-N and N-H-O hydrogen bonds. The neutral metal atoms tend to bond near the nitrogen atoms. The effect of the metal atoms on the bonding of nucleobases differs depending on whether or not the metal atoms bond to one of the hydrogen-bonding sites. When the silver or gold atoms bond to a non-hydrogen-bonding site, the effect is a slight enhancement of the cytosine-guanine bonding, but there is almost no effect on the adenine-thymine pairing. The metal atoms can block one of the hydrogen-bonding sites, thus preventing the normal cytosine-guanine and adenine-thymine pairings. We also find that both silver and gold can bond to consecutive guanines in a similar fashion to platinum, albeit with a significantly lower binding energy.

Vibrational ground state properties of H(5)(+) and its isotopomers from diffusion Monte Carlo calculations.

Diffusion Monte Carlo computations, with and without importance sampling, of the zero-point properties of H(5)(+) and its isotopomers using a recent high accuracy global potential energy surface are presented. The global minimum of the potential possesses C(2v) symmetry, but the calculations predict a D(2d) geometry for zero-point averaged structure of H(5)(+) with one H atom "in the middle" between two HH diatoms. The predicted zero-point geometries of the deuterated forms have H in the middle preferred over D in the middle and for a nonsymmetric arrangement of D atoms the preferred arrangement is one which maximizes the number of D as the triatomic ion. We speculate on the consequences of these preferences in scattering of H(2)+H(3)(+) and isotopomers at low energies, such as those in the interstellar medium.

Structure and magnetism of VnBz(n+1) sandwich clusters.

Results on structural, energetic, electronic, and magnetic properties of linear sandwich VnBzn+1 clusters obtained using high-accuracy density functional computations are presented and analyzed. Energetically close-lying configurations and states of different spin-multiplicities are identified. The computed characteristics are in good agreement with the available experimental data. The computations predict that the most stable forms of the clusters in the size range n >/= 4 are chiral. This feature, combined with the magnetism of these systems, makes them of potential importance as building blocks of nanosystems with coupled optical and magnetic functionalities.

Electron binding energies of anionic magnesium clusters and the nonmetal-to-metal transition.

The binding energies of the two most external electrons in Mg- n, n=2-22, clusters are computed using the gradient-corrected density functional theory and a new scheme for converting the Kohn-Sham eigenenergies into electron removal energies. The computations are performed for the anionic clusters considered in the most stable configurations of both Mg- n and Mg n. The results are compared with photoelectron spectroscopy data [O. C. Thomas, following Letter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 213403 (2002)]], and their implications for the finite-size analog of the nonmetal-to-metal transition are analyzed.