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At least 19 records

Graph characterization of higher-order structure in atmospheric chemical reaction mechanisms

Atmospheric chemical reactions play an important role in air quality and climate change. While the structure and dynamics of individual chemical reactions are fairly well understood, the emergent properties of the entire atmospheric chemical system, which can involve many different species that participate in many different reactions, are not well described. In this work, we leverage graph-theoretic techniques to characterize patterns of interaction (“motifs”) in three different representations of gas-phase atmospheric chemistry, termed “chemical mechanisms.” These widely used mechanisms, the master chemical mechanism, the GEOS-Chem mechanism, and the Super-Fast mechanism, vary dramatically in scale and application, but they all generally aim to simulate the abundance and variability of chemical species in the atmosphere. This motif analysis quantifies the fundamental patterns of interaction within the mechanisms, which are directly related to their construction. For example, the gas-phase chemistry in the very small Super-Fast mechanism is entirely composed of bimolecular reactions, and its motif distribution matches that of an individual bimolecular reaction well. The larger and more complex mechanisms show emergent motif distributions that differ strongly from any specific reaction type, consistent with their complexity. The proposed motif analysis demonstrates that while these mechanisms all have a similar design goal, their higher-order structure of interactions differs strongly and thus provides a novel set of tools for exploring differences across chemical mechanisms.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The mineralogic evolution of the Martian surface through time: Implications from chemical reaction path modeling studies

Chemical reaction path calculations were used to model the minerals that might have formed at or near the Martian surface as a result of volcano or meteorite impact driven hydrothermal systems; weathering at the Martian surface during an early warm, wet climate; and near-zero or sub-zero C brine-regolith reactions in the current cold climate. Although the chemical reaction path calculations carried out do not define the exact mineralogical evolution of the Martian surface over time, they do place valuable geochemical constraints on the types of minerals that formed from an aqueous phase under various surficial and geochemically complex conditions.

Plumlee, G. S.↗

High accuracy barrier heights, enthalpies, and rate coefficients for chemical reactions

Abstract Quantitative chemical reaction data, including activation energies and reaction rates, are crucial for developing detailed kinetic mechanisms and accurately predicting reaction outcomes. However, such data are often difficult to find, and high-quality datasets are especially rare. Here, we use CCSD(T)-F12a/cc-pVDZ-F12// ω B97X-D3/def2-TZVP to obtain high-quality single point calculations for nearly 22,000 unique stable species and transition states. We report the results from these quantum chemistry calculations and extract the barrier heights and reaction enthalpies to create a kinetics dataset of nearly 12,000 gas-phase reactions. These reactions involve H, C, N, and O, contain up to seven heavy atoms, and have cleaned atom-mapped SMILES. Our higher-accuracy coupled-cluster barrier heights differ significantly (RMSE of ∼5 kcal mol −1 ) relative to those calculated at ω B97X-D3/def2-TZVP. We also report accurate transition state theory rate coefficients $${k}_{\infty }(T)$$ k ∞ ( T ) between 300 K and 2000 K and the corresponding Arrhenius parameters for a subset of rigid reactions. We believe this data will accelerate development of automated and reliable methods for quantitative reaction prediction.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Single-Molecule Chemical Reactions Unveiled in Molecular Junctions

Understanding chemical processes at the single-molecule scale represents the ultimate limit of analytical chemistry. Single-molecule detection techniques allow one to reveal the detailed dynamics and kinetics of a chemical reaction with unprecedented accuracy. It has also enabled the discoveries of new reaction pathways or intermediates/transition states that are inaccessible in conventional ensemble experiments, which is critical to elucidating their intrinsic mechanisms. Thanks to the rapid development of single-molecule junction (SMJ) techniques, detecting chemical reactions via monitoring the electrical current through single molecules has received an increasing amount of attention and has witnessed tremendous advances in recent years. Research efforts in this direction have opened a new route for probing chemical and physical processes with single-molecule precision. This review presents detailed advancements in probing single-molecule chemical reactions using SMJ techniques. We specifically highlight recent progress in investigating electric-field-driven reactions, reaction dynamics and kinetics, host–guest interactions, and redox reactions of different molecular systems. Finally, we discuss the potential of single-molecule detection using SMJs across various future applications.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Significance of vapor phase chemical reactions on CVD rates predicted by chemically frozen and local thermochemical equilibrium boundary layer theories

This paper investigates the role played by vapor-phase chemical reactions on CVD rates by comparing the results of two extreme theories developed to predict CVD mass transport rates in the absence of interfacial kinetic barrier: one based on chemically frozen boundary layer and the other based on local thermochemical equilibrium. Both theories consider laminar convective-diffusion boundary layers at high Reynolds numbers and include thermal (Soret) diffusion and variable property effects. As an example, Na2SO4 deposition was studied. It was found that gas phase reactions have no important role on Na2SO4 deposition rates and on the predictions of the theories. The implications of the predictions of the two theories to other CVD systems are discussed.

Gokoglu, Suleyman A.↗

Nonadiabatically Driven Quantum Interference Effects in the Ultracold K + KRb → Rb + K 2 Chemical Reaction

The K + KRb → Rb + K 2 chemical reaction is the first ultracold atom–diatom chemical reaction for which experimental results have been reported for temperatures below 1 μK more than a decade ago. The reaction occurs through coupling with an excited electronic state that is accessible even in the ultracold limit. A previous quantum dynamics study, excluding nonadiabatic effects, has reported a rate coefficient that is about 35% below the experimental value. Here, we report the first nonadiabatic quantum dynamics study of this reaction and obtain rate coefficients in better agreement with experiments. Our results show that short-range dynamics mediated by coupling with the excited electronic state introduces quantum interference effects that influence both the state-to-state rate coefficients and the overall reaction rates.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Mixing and non-equilibrium chemical reaction in a compressible mixing layer

The effects of compressibility, chemical reaction exothermicity, and non-equilibrium chemical modeling in a reacting plane mixing layer were investigated by means of two dimensional direct numerical simulations. The chemical reaction was irreversible and second order of the type A + B yields Products + Heat. The general governing fluid equations of a compressible reacting flow field were solved by means of high order finite difference methods. Physical effects were then determined by examining the response of the mixing layer to variation of the relevant non-dimensionalized parameters. The simulations show that increased compressibility generally results in a suppressed mixing, and consequently a reduced chemical reaction conversion rate. Reaction heat release was found to enhance mixing at the initial stages of the layer growth, but had a stabilizing effect at later times. The increased stability manifested itself in the suppression or delay of the formation of large coherent structures within the flow. Calculations were performed for a constant rate chemical kinetics model and an Arrhenius type kinetic prototype. The choice of the model was shown to have an effect on the development of the flow. The Arrhenius model caused a greater temperature increase due to reaction than the constant kinetic model. This had the same effect as increasing the exothermicity of the reaction. Localized flame quenching was also observed when the Zeldovich number was relatively large.

Steinberger, Craig J.↗

Generating Skeletal Chemical Reaction Mechanisms for Post-Detonation Flows

This report documents the generation of a skeletal chemical reaction mechanism for use with hemispherical pentaerythritol tetranitrate charges. Skeletal mechanisms can substantially reduce computation time while maintaining accuracy. The methodology within uses faster running sample simulations to build a representative thermodynamic state space. These thermodynamic states are used with a constant-volume reactor analysis and a reaction flow analysis to remove unimportant species and reactions from a full chemical reaction mechanism. For the given test case, this results in a 6x speedup in computation time for directly comparable simulations in 2D axisymmetric simulations. We see a 30x speedup in simulations in 3D Cartesian coordainates when compared to a prior full kinetics simulation. There is strong agreement between temperature and species mass fraction profiles between the full and skeletal chemical reaction mechanisms. These methodologies can be applied to any explosive, given the availability of sample simulations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Non-equilibrium effects in high temperature chemical reactions

Reaction rate data were collected for chemical reactions occurring at high temperatures during reentry of space vehicles. The principle of detailed balancing is used in modeling kinetics of chemical reactions at high temperatures. Although this principle does not hold for certain transient or incubation times in the initial phase of the reaction, it does seem to be valid for the rates of internal energy transitions that occur within molecules and atoms. That is, for every rate of transition within the internal energy states of atoms or molecules, there is an inverse rate that is related through an equilibrium expression involving the energy difference of the transition.

Johnson, Richard E.↗

Performance and cost of energy transport and storage systems for dish applications using reversible chemical reactions

The use of reversible chemical reactions for energy transport and storage for parabolic dish networks is considered. Performance and cost characteristics are estimated for systems using three reactions (sulfur-trioxide decomposition, steam reforming of methane, and carbon-dioxide reforming of methane). Systems are considered with and without storage, and in several energy-delivery configurations that give different profiles of energy delivered versus temperature. Cost estimates are derived assuming the use of metal components and of advanced ceramics. (The latter reduces the costs by three- to five-fold). The process that led to the selection of the three reactions is described, and the effects of varying temperatures, pressures, and heat exchanger sizes are addressed. A state-of-the-art survey was performed as part of this study. As a result of this survey, it appears that formidable technical risks exist for any attempt to implement the systems analyzed in this study, especially in the area of reactor design and performance. The behavior of all components and complete systems under thermal energy transients is very poorly understood. This study indicates that thermochemical storage systems that store reactants as liquids have efficiencies below 60%, which is in agreement with the findings of earlier investigators.

Schredder, J. M.↗