Publications by authors named "Valter H C Silva"

Among four-atom processes, the reaction OH + HBr → H2O + Br is one of the most studied experimentally: its kinetics has manifested an unusual anti-Arrhenius behavior, namely, a marked decrease of the rate constant as the temperature increases, which has intrigued theoreticians for a long time. Recently, salient features of the potential energy surface have been characterized and most kinetic aspects can be considered as satisfactorily reproduced by classical trajectory simulations. Motivation of the work reported in this paper is the investigation of the stereodirectional dynamics of this reaction as the prominent reason for the peculiar kinetics: we started in a previous Letter ( J.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The OH + HBr → H2O + Br reaction, prototypical of halogen-atom liberating processes relevant to mechanisms for atmospheric ozone destruction, attracted frequent attention of experimental chemical kinetics: the nature of the unusual reactivity drop from low to high temperatures eluded a variety of theoretical efforts, ranking this one among the most studied four-atom reactions. Here, inspired by oriented molecular-beams experiments, we develop a first-principles stereodynamical approach. Thermalized sets of trajectories, evolving on a multidimensional potential energy surface quantum mechanically generated on-the-fly, provide a map of most visited regions at each temperature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fluorescent naphthoxazoles and their boron derivatives have been synthesized and applied as superior and selective probes for endocytic pathway tracking in live cancer cells. The best fluorophores were compared with the commercially available acridine orange (co-staining experiments), showing far better selectivity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chalcones are an important class of medicinal compounds and are known for taking part in various biological activities as in anti-inflammatory, anti-leishmania, antimitotic, and antiviral. Chemically, chalcones consist of open-chain flavonoids in which the two aromatic rings are joined by a three-carbon α,β-unsaturated carbonyl system. The wide action spectrum has attracted our attention to synthesize, crystallize, and characterize the dimethoxy-chalcone C18H18O3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The ability of the chalcone, C18H18O4, to form solvates was theoretically and experimentally investigated. The unit cell with Z' > 1, composed of two independent chalcone molecules (α and β), shows the formation of a stable molecular complex which is related with the presence of methanol in this crystal lattice. Aiming to understand the process of crystal lattice stabilization, a combination of techniques was used, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), computational molecular modeling, and an ab initio molecular dynamic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The use of a charge-tagged acrylate derivative bearing an imidazolium tag to study the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction via ESI-MS(/MS) monitoring and the effect of such tag (imidazolium cations and ion pairs) over TSs is described. The ionic nature of the substrate was meant to facilitate ESI transfer to the gas phase for direct mass spectrometric analysis. The detection and characterization of charged intermediates has suggested major reaction pathways.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important chemical compound involved in many physiological and pathological processes in living organisms. However, nitric oxide is a very reactive radical that needs to be carried through organisms to reach the desired biological target. With the aim of developing new compounds that can be used as biomedical NO carrier agents we carried out a theoretical investigation at B3LYP/6-31+G(d)/LANL2DZ level on the interaction of NO with RuTAP (Ruthenium tetraazaporphyrin) and Ru(L)TAP, where L=Cl-, NH₃, and Pyridine (Py)) and the oxidation state of Ru ranging from +1 to +3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The main goal of this paper is to present the rovibrational energies and spectroscopic constants of the Cl(2) molecular system in the relativistic states [Formula: see text], A':(1)2( u ), A:(1)1( u ), [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. More precisely, we have evaluated the Cl(2) ω ( e ), ω ( e ) x ( e ), ω ( e ) y ( e ), α ( e ), γ ( e ) and B ( e ) rovibrational spectroscopic constants using two different procedures. The first was obtained by combining the rovibrational energies, calculated through solving Schrödinger's nuclear equation and the diatomic rovibrational energy equation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nitric oxide (NO) is an extremely toxic compound formed during combustion, predominantly at high temperatures, and it is among the most important atmospheric pollutants. However, this compound has interesting biological activities, since it can control important biological processes in living organisms. With the aim of developing new materials that can be used as selective chemical sensors or as biomedical NO delivery agents we carried out a quantum mechanical study of the interaction of NO with aluminum phthalocyanine (AlPc) at B3LYP/6-31G* level.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF