CO, CO2 and H2 adsorption on ZnO, CeO2, and ZnO/CeO2 surfaces: DFT simulations.

The adsorption of the molecules CO, CO2, and H2 on several ceria and zinc oxide surfaces was studied by means of periodical DFT calculations and compared with infrared frequency data. The stable CeO2(111), CeO2(331), and ZnO(0001) perfect faces were the first substrates considered. Afterwards, the same surfaces with oxygen vacancies and a ZnO monolayer grown on Ceria(111) were also studied in order to compare the behaviors and reactivities of the molecules at those surfaces. The ceria surfaces were substantially more reactive than the ZnO surface towards the CO2 molecule. The highest adsorption energy for this molecule was obtained on the CeO2(111) surface with oxygen vacancies. The molecules CO and H2 both presented low or very low reactivities on all of the surfaces studied, although some reactivity was observed for the adsorption of CO onto the surfaces with oxygen vacancies, whereas H2 exhibited reactivity towards the CeO2(111) surface with oxygen vacancies. This work was performed to provide a firm foundation for novel process development in methanol synthesis from carbon oxides, steam reforming of methanol for hydrogen production, and/or the water-gas shift reaction.

Lubricants from chemically modified vegetable oils.

This work reports laboratory results obtained from the production of polyols with branched ether and ester compounds from epoxidized vegetable oils pertaining to annual, temperate climate crops (soybean, sunflower and high-oleic sunflower oils), focusing on their possible use as components of lubricant base stocks. To this end, two different opening reactions of the epoxide ring were studied. The first caused by the attack with glacial acetic acid (exclusively in a single organic phase) and the second using short-chain aliphatic alcohols, methanol and ethanol, in acid media. Both reactions proceed under mild conditions: low synthesis temperature and short reaction times and with conversions above 99%. Spectroscopic (NMR), thermal (DSC) and rheological techniques were used to characterize the oils, their epoxides and polyols, to assess the impact of the nature of the vegetable oil and the chemical modifications introduced, including long-term storage conditions. Several correlations were employed to predict the viscosity of the vegetable oils with temperature, and good agreement with the experimental data was obtained.

Production of natural antioxidants from vegetable oil deodorizer distillates: effect of catalytic hydrogenation.

Natural tocopherols are one of the main types of antioxidants found in living creatures, but they also have other critical biological functions. The biopotency of natural (+)-alpha-tocopherol (RRR) is 36% higher than that of the synthetic racemic mixture and 300% higher than the SRR stereoisomer. Vegetable oil deodorizer distillates (DD) are an excellent source of natural tocopherols. Catalytic hydrogenation of DD preconcentrates has been suggested as a feasible route for recovery of tocopherols in high yield. However, it is important to know whether the hydrogenation operation, as applied to these tocopherol-rich mixtures, is capable of preserving the chiral (RRR) character, which is critical to its biopotency. Fortified (i.e., (+)-alpha-tocopherol enriched) sunflower oil and methyl stearate, as well as sunflower oil DD, were fully hydrogenated using commercial Ni and Pd catalysts (120-180 degrees C; 20-60 psig). Products were analyzed by chiral HPLC. Results show that the desired chiral configuration (RRR) is fully retained. Thus, the hydrogenation route can be safely considered as a valid alternative for increasing the efficiency of tocopherol recovery processes from DDs while preserving their natural characteristics.

Methanol adsorption on the beta-Ga2O3 surface with oxygen vacancies: theoretical and experimental approach.

Methanol adsorption on beta-Ga2O3 surface has been studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and by means of density functional theory (DFT) cluster model calculations. Adsorption sites of tetrahedral and octahedral gallium ions with different numbers of oxygen vacancies have been compared. The electronic properties of the adsorbed molecules have been monitored by computing adsorption energies, optimized geometry parameters, overlap populations, atomic charges, and vibrational frequencies. The gallia-methanol interaction has different behaviors according to the local surface chemical composition. The calculations show that methanol can react in three different ways with the gallia surface giving rise to a nondissociative adsorption, a dissociative adsorption, and an oxidative decomposition. The surface without oxygen vacancies is very reactive and produces the methanol molecule decomposition. The molecule is nondissociatively adsorbed by means of a hydrogen bond between the alcoholic hydrogen atom and a surface oxygen atom and a bond between the alcoholic oxygen atom and a surface gallium atom. Two neighbor oxygen vacancies on tetrahedral gallium sites produce the dissociation of the methanol molecule and the formation of a bridge bond between two surface gallium atoms and the methoxy group.

Infrared spectroscopic study of the carbon dioxide adsorption on the surface of Ga2O3 polymorphs.

The adsorption of CO(2) over a set of gallium (III) oxide polymorphs with different crystallographic phases (alpha, beta, and gamma) and surface areas (12-105 m(2) g(-1)) was studied by in situ infrared spectroscopy. On the bare surface of the activated gallias (i.e., partially dehydroxylated under O(2) and D(2) (H(2)) at 723 K), several IR signals of the O-D (O-H) stretching mode were assigned to mono-, di- and tricoordinated OD (OH) groups bonded to gallium cations in tetrahedral and/or octahedral positions. After exposing the surface of the polymorphs to CO(2) at 323 K, a variety of (bi)carbonate species emerged. The more basic hydroxyl groups were able to react with CO(2), to yield two types of bicarbonate species: mono- (m-) and bidentate (b-) [nu(as)(CO(3)) = 1630 cm(-1); nu(s)(CO(3)) = 1431 or 1455 cm(-1) (for m- or b-); delta(OH) = 1225 cm(-1)]. Together with the bicarbonate groups, IR bands assigned to carboxylate [nu(as)(CO(2)) = 1750 cm(-1); nu(s)(CO(2)) = 1170 cm(-1)], bridge carbonate [nu(as)(CO(3)) = 1680 cm(-1); nu(s)(CO(3)) = 1280 cm(-1)], bidentate carbonate [nu(as)(CO(3)) = 1587 cm(-1); nu(s)(CO(3)) = 1325 cm(-1)], and polydentate carbonate [nu(as)(CO(3)) = 1460 cm(-1); nu(s)(CO(3)) = 1406 cm(-1)] species developed, up to approximately 600 Torr of CO(2). However, only the bi- and polydentate carbonate groups still remained on the surface upon outgassing the samples at 323 K. The total amount of adsorbed CO(2), measured by volumetric adsorption (323 K), was approximately 2.0 micromol m(-2) over any of the polymorphs, congruent with an integrated absorbance of (bi)carbonate species proportional to the surface area of the materials. Upon heating under flowing CO(2) (760 Torr), most of the (bi)carbonate species vanished a T > 550 K, but polydentate groups remained on the surface up to the highest temperature used (723 K). A thorough discussion of the more probable surface sites involved in the adsorption of CO(2) is made.

Hydrogen chemisorption on gallium oxide polymorphs.

The chemisorption of H(2) over a set of gallia polymorphs (alpha-, beta-, and gamma-Ga(2)O(3)) has been studied by temperature-programmed adsorption equilibrium and desorption (TPA and TPD, respectively) experiments, using in situ transmission infrared spectroscopy. Upon heating the gallium oxides above 500 K in 101.3 kPa of H(2), two overlapped infrared signals developed. The 2003- and 1980-cm(-1) bands were assigned to the stretching frequencies of H bonded to coordinatively unsaturated (cus) gallium cations in tetrahedral and octahedral positions [nu(Ga(t)-H) and nu(Ga(o)-H), respectively]. Irrespective to the gallium cation geometrical environment, (i) a linear relationship between the integrated intensity of the whole nu(Ga-H) infrared band versus the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of the gallia was found and (ii) TPA and TPD results revealed that molecular hydrogen is dissociatively chemisorbed on any bulk gallium oxide polymorph following two reaction pathways. An endothermal, homolytic dissociation occurs over surface cus-gallium sites at T > 450 K, giving rise to Ga-H(I) bonds. The heat and entropy of this type I hydrogen adsorption were determined by the Langmuir's adsorption model as Deltah(I) = 155 +/- 25 kJ mol(-1) and Deltas(I) = 0.27 +/- 0.11 kJ mol(-1) K(-1). In addition, another exothermic, heterolytic adsorption sets in already in the low-temperature region. This type of hydrogen chemisorption involves surface Ga-O-Ga species, originating GaO-H and Ga-H(II) bonds which can only be removed from the gallia surface after heating under evacuation at T > 650 K. The measured desorption energy of this last, second-order process was equal to 77 +/- 10 kJ mol(-1). The potential of the H(2) chemisorption as a tool to measure or estimate the specific surface area of gallia and to discern the nature and proportion of gallium cation coordination sites on the surface of bulk gallium oxides is also analyzed.