We report the first UV-vis spectroscopic study of bromine molecules confined in clathrate hydrate cages. Bromine in its natural hydrate occupies 51262 and 51263 lattice cavities. Bromine also can be encapsulated into the larger 51264 cages of a type II hydrate formed mainly from tetrahydrofuran or dichloromethane and water. The visible spectra of the enclathrated halogen molecule retain the spectral envelope of the gas-phase spectra while shifting to the blue. In contrast, spectra of bromine in liquid water or amorphous ice are broadened and significantly more blue-shifted. The absorption bands shift by about 360 cm-1 for bromine in large 51264 cages of type II clathrate, by about 900 cm-1 for bromine in a combination of 51262 and 51263 cages of pure bromine hydrate, and by more than 1700 cm-1 for bromine in liquid water or amorphous ice. The dramatic shift and broadening in water and ice is due to the strong interaction of the water lone-pair orbitals with the halogen sigma* orbital. In the clathrate hydrates, the oxygen lone-pair orbitals are all involved in the hydrogen-bonded water lattice and are thus unavailable to interact with the halogen guest molecule. The blue shifts observed in the clathrate hydrate cages are related to the spatial constraints on the halogen excited states by the cage walls.
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Materials (Basel)
January 2025
Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
Intense sources of very cold neutrons (VCNs) would be beneficial for various neutron scattering techniques and low-energy particle physics experiments. Binary clathrate hydrates hosting deuterated tetrahydrofuran (THF-d) and dioxygen show promise as potential moderators for such sources due to a rich spectrum of localized low-energy excitations of the encaged guest molecules. In this article, we present a reliable manufacturing technique for such hydrates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Omega
January 2025
Faculty of Physics and Technology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi ave. 71/23, 050040 Almaty, Kazakhstan.
This study investigates the formation of carbon dioxide clathrate hydrates under conditions simulating interstellar environments, a process of significant astrophysical and industrial relevance. Clathrate hydrates, where gas molecules are trapped within water ice cages, play an essential role in both carbon sequestration strategies and understanding of the behavior of ices in space. We employed a combination of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to explore thin films of HO:CO ice mixtures with varying CO concentrations (5-75%) prepared by vapor deposition at temperatures ranging between 11 and 180 K.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Phys Chem Lett
January 2025
DST Unit of Nanoscience (DST UNS) and Thematic Unit of Excellence (TUE), Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India.
Clathrate hydrates (CHs) are believed to exist in cold regions of space, such as comets and icy moons. While spectroscopic studies have explored their formation under similar laboratory conditions, direct structural characterization using diffraction techniques has remained elusive. We present the first electron diffraction study of tetrahydrofuran (THF) and 1,3-dioxolane (DIOX) CHs in the form of nanometer-thin ice films under an ultrahigh vacuum at cryogenic temperatures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
December 2024
Department of Petroleum Engineering, School of Energy Technology, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382426, India. Electronic address:
Naturally occurring gas clathrates are a significant methane resource-the primary component of natural gas, regarded as the cleanest hydrocarbon and a key feedstock for producing gray and blue hydrogen. Despite the global abundance of gas hydrate reserves, extraction via depressurization has yet to achieve commercially viable production rates. The primary limitation lies in the low permeability of hydrate-bearing sediments, where solid clathrates obstruct porous pathways, hindering dissociation and slowing gas recovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Chem Phys
December 2024
Division of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
We explore the solubilities of guest CH4 and/or CO2 in the aqueous state coexisting with the corresponding hydrate. The equilibrium conditions are estimated by calculating the chemical potentials of water and guest species in the hydrate on the basis of a statistical mechanical theory using pairwise intermolecular potentials. This requires the least computational cost while covering a wide range of temperature, pressure, and composition of guest species, even for the binary hydrate.
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