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Theoretical Investigation of Mechanisms of Chemical Reactions Taking Place in Microporous Materials
Položij, Miroslav
Mechanisms of three reactions catalyzed by microporous materials were investigated computationally; the reactions investigated include Friedländer and Knoevenagel reactions catalyzed by Cu3BTC2 metal organic framework (MOF) and an intramolecular cyclisation of unsaturated alcohols catalyzed by zeolite H-ZSM-5. It was found that the reaction mechanisms of all three reactions are controlled by a high concentration of active sites in materials. Reaction intermediates interact with more than one active site simultaneously. This novel concept of "multiple-site" interactions is described. The concerted effect of two catalytic sites leads to a decrease of activation barriers on reaction paths of Friedländer and Knoevenagel reactions. On the contrary, a simultaneous interaction of reactants with two active sites has a negative effect on reaction rate in case of alcohol cyclization catalyzed by H-ZSM-5; it was found that the interaction with dual sites results in the increase of activation barriers and diffusion limitations. In case of Knoevenagel reaction catalyzed by CuBTC, the adsorption of reaction precursor to the reaction site allows the creation of a dynamic defect in the MOF framework that subsequently catalyses the reaction. Both, the multiple sites effect and the dynamical defect formation effect...
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Theoretical Study of Influence of Silanol Nest Defects on Hydrolysis of Zeolite Chabazite
Vacek, Jaroslav ; Grajciar, Lukáš (advisor) ; Fišer, Jiří (referee)
This thesis is focused on theoretical study of influence of the silanol nest defects on the hydrolysis of zeolite Chabazite under harsh steaming conditions. The motivation of the thesis was a recent experiment proving that the silanol nest defect enhances the hydrolysis of a zeolite. The harsh steaming conditions have been chosen as some important technological processes involving zeolites require high temperatures and have water vapour present. The study was performed by using density functional theory calculations. To investigate the influence of the defect two models were used a reference pristine model and a defected model containing the silanol nest defect. The two models were pure siliceous Chabazite periodical models with supercell containing 36 and 35 Si tetrahedra respectively. A multi-step hydrolysis leading to detachment of a Si(OH)4 cluster from the zeolite, known as total desilication, was calculated for the two models. Multiple possible paths of the hydrolysis were discovered, compared and discussed on both models. Both the most favourable hydrolysis paths of the two model as well as their arithmetic means were compared. The experimentally set expectations that a silanol nest defect enhances the hydrolysis of the zeolite have been met.
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Theoretical investigation of water-zeolite interactions under steaming conditions
Benešová, Tereza ; Heard, Christopher James (advisor) ; Fišer, Jiří (referee)
The thesis is focused on theoretical study of hydrolysis and isotopic oxygen exchange in zeolite chabazite under steaming conditions. The theoretical study was performed by the methods of computational chemistry, namely density functional theory. Reactions of water with zeolites were investigated within the periodic model with chabazite supercell consisting of 36 Si/Al tetrahedra. Reactivity was investigated for one or two water molecules corresponding to the conditions relevant to high-temperature steaming. Relevant mechanisms of isotopic oxygen exchange were found and their competitiveness with hydrolysis was discussed.
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Theoretical investigation of novel two-dimensional materials with application potential
Lyu, Pengbo ; Nachtigall, Petr (advisor) ; Maurin, Guillaume (referee) ; Straka, Michal (referee)
Electron confinement due to the two-dimensional (2D) nature of layered materials accounts for their fascinating electronic properties and for their applications in new-generation electronic devices. Moreover, the large specific surface area of 2D materials also enables their use in surface-related applications, such as catalysis and adsorption. In addition, these 2D materials are promising photocatalysts thanks to the shorter migration distance of photogenerated electrons and of electron holes. The research reported in this thesis aimed to provide atomistic insight into 2D layered materials, particularly into their structures, electronic properties and potential applications in the field of catalysis, photocatalysis and alkali metal ion batteries. Our findings are not only theoretically relevant but also open new research avenues for our experimental collaborators to improve specific properties and activities of their materials. The main results from this thesis, for five different classes of 2D materials, are summarized below. 2D covalent organic frameworks (COFs). CTF-type COFs with similar topology but different nitrogen-to-carbon ratios were investigated for their potential in photocatalytic water splitting. More specifically, torsion and bending effects on structure stability were investigated in...
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Theoretical Investigation of ethanol dehydration catalyzed by acid sites in zeolites
Vacek, Jaroslav ; Nachtigall, Petr (advisor) ; Uhlík, Filip (referee)
Zeolites are a group of aluminosilicate minerals with catalytic properties. They may be used for many industrial applications such as catalytic cracking of oil. Zeolites are also capable of converting ethanol to diethylether and ethylen. This reaction is known as dehydration of ethanol. The reaction is potentially interesting as a way of converting ethanol to more valuable molecules. An experimental study (Shashikant A. Kadam, Mariya V. Shamzhy, 2018) has proven that diethylether is the preferred product when the temperatures are low and the partial pressure of ethanol is high. Ethylen is more significant product with higher temperature and lower partial pressure of ethanol. Aim of this thesis is to determine the mechanism of dehydration of ethanol. Furthermore it was attempted to explain the behavior of the reaction under different circumstances. The research was done in silico using the methods of computational chemistry. Such methods give information on the geometry and the energy of systems of molecules. Thus computational chemistry can be used to investigate the relational path and activation energy of the studied reaction. This thesis is a theoretical study of dehydration of ethanol catalysed by a zeolite.
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Theoretical Modeling of Two-dimensional Magnetic Materials
He, Junjie ; Nachtigall, Petr (advisor) ; Zhang, Gang (referee) ; Blonski, Piotr (referee)
Two dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene, phosphorene and transition metal chalcogenides, have received a great attention in recent years due to their unique physical and chemical properties. A majority of 2D materials is intrinsically non-magnetic, therefore, their applications in spintronics are limited. The design and synthesis of new 2D materials with intrinsic magnetism and high spin-polarization remains a challenge. Computational discovery of new 2D materials with desired magnetic and electronic properties is the subject of this thesis. Using density functional theory with PBE, PBE+U and HSE06 functionals, we have systematically investigated the structure, electronic, magnetic and topological properties of novel 2D materials. Investigated materials include MXenes and layered transition-metal trihalides, both with great potential applications in spintronic devices. Four different classes of materials showing unique magnetic properties were investigated and reported in this thesis. (1) Asymmetrically functionalized MXenes were studied. The coexistence of the fully compensated antiferromagnetic order (zero magnetization) and completely spin-polarized semiconductivity was found for the first time. Moreover, the spin carrier orientation and induced transition from bipolar antiferromagnetic...
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Spatially separated HOMO/LUMO at interface of polypyrrole physisorbed on oxidized nanodiamond facets
Matunová, Petra ; Jirásek, Vít ; Rezek, Bohuslav
Nanodiamond particles (NDs) have recently risen in popularity owing to their unique and perspective properties. Merging NDs with organic molecules, such as polypyrrole (PPy), into hybrid organic-semiconductor functional systems gives rise to potential applications in photovoltaics (PV), which is supported by prior experimentally observed charge transfer between bulk diamond and PPy. This work focuses on the most relevant (111) and (100) O-terminated ND facets with different coverage of surface terminating oxygens in ether, epoxide, ketone, and peroxide positions. We use density functional theory (DFT) computations employing B3LYP functional and 6-31G(d) basis set. Energetically the most favorable oxidized ND facets were further optimized with PPy in physisorbed configurations. Analysis of geometry, binding energy, HOMO-LUMO gap, and charge transfer was done on the relaxed PPy-ND structures. Multiple hydrogen bonds are formed between PPy amino groups and O atoms on ND surface.
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Theoretical Investigation of Mechanisms of Chemical Reactions Taking Place in Microporous Materials
Položij, Miroslav
Mechanisms of three reactions catalyzed by microporous materials were investigated computationally; the reactions investigated include Friedländer and Knoevenagel reactions catalyzed by Cu3BTC2 metal organic framework (MOF) and an intramolecular cyclisation of unsaturated alcohols catalyzed by zeolite H-ZSM-5. It was found that the reaction mechanisms of all three reactions are controlled by a high concentration of active sites in materials. Reaction intermediates interact with more than one active site simultaneously. This novel concept of "multiple-site" interactions is described. The concerted effect of two catalytic sites leads to a decrease of activation barriers on reaction paths of Friedländer and Knoevenagel reactions. On the contrary, a simultaneous interaction of reactants with two active sites has a negative effect on reaction rate in case of alcohol cyclization catalyzed by H-ZSM-5; it was found that the interaction with dual sites results in the increase of activation barriers and diffusion limitations. In case of Knoevenagel reaction catalyzed by CuBTC, the adsorption of reaction precursor to the reaction site allows the creation of a dynamic defect in the MOF framework that subsequently catalyses the reaction. Both, the multiple sites effect and the dynamical defect formation effect...
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Theoretical Investigation of Properties of 3D and 2D Zeolites
Ho, Viet Thang ; Nachtigall, Petr (advisor) ; Fišer, Jiří (referee) ; Cwiklik, Lukasz (referee)
Zeolites have been widely used in many different fields including catalysis, adsorption and separation, ion exchange, or gas storage. Conventional zeolites have three- dimensional (3D) structures with microporous channel system; typical pore sizes are well below 1 nanometer, therefore, diffusion limitation plays important role in many process and bulkier reactants (or products) cannot enter (or leave) the zeolite channel system. Two-dimensional (2D) zeolites prepared in last years can lift all diffusion limitation and they thus offer a very attractive alternative to conventional 3D zeolites. 2D zeolites attracted considerable attention on the experimental side; however, understanding of 2D zeolites based on computational investigation or on a combination of experimental and computational investigation is limited. A motivation for the computational work presented here is to improve our understanding of properties of 2D zeolites based on computational investigation. The originality of the research presented herein is in the strategy: we carried out systematic investigation of properties of corresponding 2D and 3D zeolites and we focus on the identification of similarities and differences. The most important zeolite properties, i.e., presence of Brønsted and Lewis acid sites, are investigated. A number of...
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Magnetic circular dichroism and aromatic compounds
Štěpánek, Petr ; Bouř, Petr (advisor) ; Matějka, Pavel (referee) ; Srnec, Martin (referee)
Title: Magnetic circular dichroism and aromatic compounds Author: Petr Štěpánek Department/Institute: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry AS CR, v.v.i. Supervisor: prof. RNDr. Petr Bouř, DSc., Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry AS CR, v.v.i. Abstract: The thesis presents a series of studies concerning magnetic circular dichroism (MCD), a spectroscopic method, which experienced an intense theo- retical development in the recent years. New computational codes opened possi- bilities to calculate MCD spectra of larger and more varied molecules than was possible in the past. In the presented studies, we took the advantage of the new computational codes to broaden the possible span of applications of the MCD technique. As an example, we present MCD as a method useful for obtaining information about the structure of fullerenes. We also studied the influence of the molecular conformation and the explicit and implicit solvent models on the MCD spectra of aromatic amino acids using the newly implemented alterna- tive computational protocol based on sum-over-states calculations. We have also theoretically predicted spectra of the nuclear spin circular dichroism (NSCD), a potential new high-resolution spectroscopy. Keywords: magnetic circular dichroism, quantum-chemical calculations, density...
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