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Biomedical subjects

C R A Catlow

Publications and source records attributed to C R A Catlow.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

A computational modelling study of oxygen vacancies at LaCoO3 perovskite surfaces.

Atomistic computational modelling of the surface structure of the catalytically-active perovskite LaCoO(3) has been undertaken in order to develop better models of the processes involved during catalytic oxidation processes. In particular, the energetics of creating oxygen ion vacancies at the surface have been investigated for the three low index faces (100), (110) and (111). Two mechanisms for vacancy creation have been considered involving dopant Sr(2+) cations at the La(3+) site and reduction of Co(3+) to Co(2+). For both mechanisms, there is a general tendency that the smaller the cation defect separation, the lower the energy of the cluster, as would be expected from simple electrostatic considerations. In addition, there are clear indications that oxygen vacancies are more easily created at the surface than in the bulk. The results also confirm that the presence of defects strongly influences crystal morphology and surface chemistry. The importance of individual crystal surfaces in catalysis is discussed in terms of the energetics for the creation of oxygen vacancies.

Binding Sites↗
PubMed2005

Structure and stability of small TiO2 nanoparticles.

The effect of the nanostructure on the photochemistry of TiO2 is an active field of research owing to its applications in photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Despite this interest, little is known of the structure of small particles of this oxide with sizes at the nanometer length scale. Here we present a computational study that locates the global minima in the potential energy surface of Ti(n)O2n clusters with n = 1-15. The search procedure does not refer to any of the known TiO2 polymorphs, and is based on a novel combination of simulated annealing and Monte Carlo basin hopping simulations, together with genetic algorithm techniques, with the energy calculated by means of an interatomic potential. The application of several different methods increases our confidence of having located the global minimum. The stable structures are then refined by means of density functional theory calculations. The results from the two techniques are similar, although the methods based on interatomic potentials are unable to describe some subtle effects. The agreement is especially good for the larger particles, with n = 9-15. For these sizes the structures are compact, with a preference for a central octahedron and a surrounding layer of 4- and 5-fold coordinated Ti atoms, although there seems to be some energy penalty for particles containing the 5-fold coordinated metal atoms with square base pyramid geometry and dangling Ti=O bonds. The novel structures reported provide the basis for further computational studies of the effect of nanostructure on adsorption, photochemistry, and nucleation of this material.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

The nature of the oxidation states of gold on ZnO.

The interaction between gold in the 0, i, ii and iii oxidation states and the zinc-terminated ZnO(0001) surface is studied via the QM/MM electronic embedding method using density functional theory. The surface sites considered are the vacant zinc interstitial surface site (VZISS) and the bulk-terminated island site (BTIS). We find that on the VZISS, only Au(0) and Au(i) are stable oxidation states. However, all clusters of i to iii oxidation states are stable as substitutionals for Zn2+ in the bulk terminated island site. Au(OH)(x) complexes (x= 1-3) can adsorb exothermically onto the VZISS, indicating that higher oxidation states of gold can be stabilised at this site in the presence of hydroxyl groups. CO is used as a probe molecule to study the reactivity of Au in different oxidation states in VZISS and BTIS. In all cases, we find that the strongest binding of CO is to surface Au(i). Furthermore, CO binding onto Au(0) is stronger when the gold atom is adsorbed onto the VZISS compared to CO binding onto a gas phase neutral gold atom. These results indicate that the nature of the oxidation states of Au on ZnO(0001) will depend on the type of adsorption site. The role of ZnO in Au/ZnO catalysts is not, therefore, merely to disperse gold atoms/particles, but to also modify their electronic properties.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Computational approaches to the determination of active site structures and reaction mechanisms in heterogeneous catalysts.

We apply quantum chemical methods to the study of active site structures and reaction mechanisms in mesoporous silica and metal oxide catalysts. Our approach is based on the use of both molecular cluster and embedded cluster (QM/MM) techniques, where the active site and molecular complex are described using density functional theory (DFT) and the embedding matrix simulated by shell model potentials. We consider three case studies: alkene epoxidation over the microporous TS-1 catalyst; methanol synthesis on ZnO and Cu/ZnO and C-H bond activation over Li-doped MgO.

Carbon↗
PubMed2002

Solubility of cerium in LaCoO3-influence on catalytic activity.

The recent interest in the catalytic properties of lanthanum perovskites for methane combustion and three way catalysis has led to considerable debate as to their structure and defect chemistry. We have investigated the doping of LaCoO3 with the tetravalent cerium cation using atomistic simulation techniques. We have compared three routes for cerium insertion and identified the favoured doping mechanism, which explain experimental observations relating to the effect of cerium on catalytic activity.

Journal Article↗