Packing structures and transitions in liquids and solids

Classification of potential energy minima-mechanically stable molecular packings-offers a unifying principle for understanding condensed phase properties. This approach permits identification of an inherent structure in liquids that is normally obscured by thermal motions. Melting and freezing occur through characteristic sequences of molecular packings, and a defect-softening phenomenon underlies the fact that they are thermodynamically first order. The topological distribution of feasible transitions between contiguous potential minima explains glass transitions and associated relaxation behavior.     

Ballistic 2-d imaging through scattering walls using an ultrafast optical kerr gate

An ultrafast optical shutter was used to image ultrasmall objects hidden behind scattering walls by a procedure that selects in time the ballistic component and rejects the scattered diffusive light. Scattering walls used in this experiment included human breast tissue, chicken breast tissue, and a water suspension of polystyrene particles with scattering coefficients up to 21.7. Submillimeter resolution was achieved for two-dimensional ballistic images of a single point, a double-point fluorescence source, and a bar test chart in or behind these different turbid media.     

Rutherford backscattering to study the near-surface region of volatile liquids and solids

Here we describe the use of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) to measure quantitative in situ elemental profiles with high depth resolution, online and nondestructively, in volatile substances (liquid and frozen acids, ice). Samples for analysis are held in a chamber with controlled temperature and partial pressures designed to match conditions for aerosols in Earth's atmosphere. This technique is demonstrated in studies of water solubility in sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid (HCl) on ice surfaces, the formation of a HCl-hexahydrate surface layer on evaporating HCl-doped ice, and the diffusion of water through this layer.     

Van der waals picture of liquids, solids, and phase transformations

The van der Waals picture focuses on the differing roles of the strong short-ranged repulsive intermolecular forces and the longer ranged attractions in determining the structure and dynamics of dense fluids and solids. According to this physical picture, the attractive interactions help fix the volume of the system, but the arrangements and motions of molecules within that volume are determined primarily by the local packing and steric effects produced by the repulsive forces. This very useful approach, its limitations, and its successful application to a wide variety of static and dynamic phenomena in condensed matter systems are reviewed.     

Ultrafast phenomena in semiconductor devices

Evolving high-speed semiconductor technology requires a more complete understanding of semiconductors on a picosecond time scale. This article discusses ultrafast phenomena that may influence device performance and describes new experimental methods utilizing short optical pulses to investigate materials and device structures.     

Ultrafast dynamics at semiconductor and metal surfaces

A variety of important dynamical phenomena at metal and semiconductor surfaces are now being investigated with the use of new ultrafast measurement techniques involving lasers and nonlinear optics. Understanding of the rates and mechanisms for relaxation of optical excitations of the surface itself as well as those of adsorbates on the surface is providing new insight into surface chemistry, surface phase transitions, and surface recombination of charge carriers in semiconductors.     

Mechanical stress and reactivity in organic solids

Organic single crystals provide an ideal model for studying the factors that influence chemical processes in structured media. Reaction trajectories are well defined and reveal the influence of spontaneous mechanical stresses equivalent to tens of thousands of atmospheres. Analysis of molecular and crystal structures helps to explain both local mechanical properties, which influence reactions, and bulk properties such as melting point, compressibility, and surface energy.     

不同护绿液对罐头蕨菜护绿效果的影响

采用正交试验极差比较法 ,研究了Cu2 ,Zn2 ,Na2 SO3 对蕨菜护绿效果的影响 ,同时对护绿液的温度和时间进行了选择 .结果表明 ,护绿液的最佳配比为 :Cu2 15 0mg·L-1 Zn2 15 0mg·L-1 Na2 SO3 10 0mg·L-1.其中Cu2 作用居第 1位 ,Zn2 和Na2 SO3 作用居第 2位 .护绿液的温度以 90℃为宜 ;处理时间为 2min .     

Fast ionic transport in solids

The discovery of inorganic solids with ionic conductivities comparable to those of aqueous electrolytes has revolutionized solid-state electrochemistry. Sodium beta alumina, a Na(+) conductor, and LixTiS(2), an intercalation compound with simultaneous Li(+) and electronic conductivity, are two of the best and most versatile fast ionic conductors. A wide variety of cations can replace Na(+) in beta alumina and Li(+) in LixTiS(2) and change the properties of the materials. Sodium beta alumina and LixTiS(2) are currently used in the development of high-energy density batteries for electric vehicles and electrical utility load leveling. Current research in solid ionic conductors is exploring new intercalation compounds, solid polymer electrolytes, and alkali ion and proton transport in crystalline solids.     

Predicting new solids and superconductors

It is now possible to start with a simple model of a solid composed of atomic cores and itinerant valence electrons and compute the total energy for a given structural arrangement of atoms with enough precision to predict the existence of new solids and their properties. The application of the model based on the pseudopotential method is described with silicon chosen as a prototype material. With only information about the constituent atoms, the electronic, structural, vibrational, and even superconducting properties of solids can be calculated from first principles. The successful predictions of superconductivity in highly condensed hexagonal silicon and the existence of new high-pressure semiconductor phases are highlighted. A discussion is presented of the use of the method to discover new stable or metastable solids at high pressures.     

Ultrafast carbon-carbon single-bond rotational isomerization in room-temperature solution

Generally, rotational isomerization about the carbon-carbon single bond in simple ethane derivatives in room-temperature solution under thermal equilibrium conditions has been too fast to measure. We achieved this goal using two-dimensional infrared vibrational echo spectroscopy to observe isomerization between the gauche and trans conformations of an ethane derivative, 1-fluoro-2-isocyanato-ethane (1), in a CCl4 solution at room temperature. The isomerization time constant is 43 picoseconds (ps, 10(-12) s). Based on this value and on density functional theory calculations of the barrier heights of 1, n-butane, and ethane, the time constants for n-butane and ethane internal rotation under the same conditions are approximately 40 and approximately 12 ps, respectively.     

Why gases dissolve in liquids

The thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of solubility are fairly well understood. It is still very difficult, however, to make quantitative predictions of solubility for real systems from first principles. The purposes of this article are to present the results of solubility experiments in some prototype solute-solvent systems, to show how far they may be understood from molecular first principles, and to discuss some of the things that are still missing. The main systems used as examples have the inert gas xenon as solute and some simple organic liquids as solvents.     

Forces between surfaces in liquids

Recent developments in the direct measurements of forces between surfaces in liquids at the ?ngstrom resolution level are reviewed. The results reveal a rich variety of interactions and interaction potentials that depend on the nature of the surfaces and intervening liquids. These results also shed new insights into liquid structure adjacent to surfaces and the interactions occurrig in complex systems, with implications in many different areas of chemical physics, biology, and technology. The origin of some important fundamental interactions, such as repulsive "hydration" forces and attractive "hydrophobic" forces, are still not understood and offer a challenge for experimental and theoretical work in this area.     

Low-temperature relaxation and entropic barriers in supercooled liquids

The low-temperature relaxation dynamics of supercooled liquids are a long-standing theoretical problem of considerable interest. The vast amount of experimental data on such liquids indicates that viscosity and diffusion in supercooled liquids are non-Arrhenius over a wide range of temperatures. The non-Arrhenius temperature dependence of the relaxation time of the slow modes in glass-forming liquids is investigated in connection with the topology of the potential energy landscape in configuration space. An analogy is made between the derived dynamical equations and Cooper's formulation of the pair equation in superconductivity.     

Ultrafast probing of core hole localization in N2

Although valence electrons are clearly delocalized in molecular bonding frameworks, chemists and physicists have long debated the question of whether the core vacancy created in a homonuclear diatomic molecule by absorption of a single x-ray photon is localized on one atom or delocalized over both. We have been able to clarify this question with an experiment that uses Auger electron angular emission patterns from molecular nitrogen after inner-shell ionization as an ultrafast probe of hole localization. The experiment, along with the accompanying theory, shows that observation of symmetry breaking (localization) or preservation (delocalization) depends on how the quantum entangled Bell state created by Auger decay is detected by the measurement.