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J A Ripmeester

Publications and source records attributed to J A Ripmeester.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

What we have learned from the study of solid p-tert-butylcalix[4]arene compounds.

The study of solid p-tert-butylcalix[4]arene and its compounds with a variety of techniques has provided a good understanding of the versatility of this host molecule, how to induce a number of distinct host-guest motifs, its molecular recognition properties, the complex phase relationships and unique properties such as gas adsorption without having obvious channels.

Journal Article↗

Stability of rare gas structure H clathrate hydrates.

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the stability of structure H (sH) clathrate hydrates with the rare gases Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe. Simulations on a 3 x 3 x 3 sH unit cell replica are performed at ambient pressure at 40 and 100 K temperatures. The small and medium (s+m) cages of the sH unit cell are assigned rare gas guest occupancies of 1 and for large (l) cages guest occupancies of 1-6 are considered. Radial distribution functions for guest pairs with occupancies in the l-l, l-(s+m), and (s+m)-(s+m) cages are presented. The unit cell volumes and configurational energies are studied as a function of large cage occupancy for the rare gases. Free energy calculations are carried out to determine the stability of clathrates for large cage occupancies at 100 K and 1 bar and 20 kbar pressures. These studies show that the most stable argon clathrate has five guests in the large cages. For krypton and xenon the most stable configurations have three and two guests in the large cages, respectively.

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Molecular dynamics simulations of binary structure H hydrogen and methyl-tert-butylether clathrate hydrates.

Binary structure H (sH) hydrogen and methyl-tert-butylether (MTBE) clathrate hydrates are studied with molecular dynamics simulations. Simulations on a 3 x 3 x 3 sH unit cell with up to 4.7 mass % hydrogen gas are run at pressures of 100 bars and 2 kbars at 100 and 273 K. For the small and medium cages of the sH unit cell, H2 guest molecule occupancies of 0, 1 (single occupancy), and 2 (double occupancy) are considered with the MTBE molecule occupying all of the large cages. An increase of the small and medium cage occupancies from 1 to 2 leads to a jump in the unit cell volume and configurational energy. Calculations are also set up with 13, 23, and 89 of the MTBE molecules in the large cages replaced by sets of three to six H2 molecules, and the effects on the configurational energy and volume of the simulation cell are determined. As MTBE molecules are replaced with sets of H2 guests in the large cages, the configurational energy of the unit cell increases. At the lower temperature, the energy and volume of the clathrate are not sensitive to the number of hydrogen guests in the large cages; however, at higher temperatures the repulsions among the H2 guest molecules in the large cages cause an increase in the system energy and volume.

Journal Article↗

Molecular-dynamics simulations of binary structure II hydrogen and tetrahydrofurane clathrates.

The binary structure II hydrogen and tetrahydrofurane (THF) clathrates are studied with molecular-dynamics simulations. Simulations are done at pressures of 120 and 1.013 bars for temperatures ranging from 100 to 273 K. For the small cages of the structure II unit cell, H2 guest molecule occupancies of 0, 16 (single occupancy), and 32 (double occupancy) are considered. THF occupancies of 0-8 in the large cages are studied. For cases in which THF does not occupy all large cages in a unit cell, the remaining large cages can be occupied with sets of four H2 guest molecules. The unit-cell volumes and configurational energies are compared in the different occupancy cases. Increasing the small cage occupancy leads to an increase in the unit-cell volume and thermal-expansion coefficient. Among simulations with the same small cage occupancy, those with the large cages containing 4H2 guests have the largest volumes. The THF guest molecules have a stabilizing effect on the clathrate and the configurational energy of the unit cell decreases linearly as the THF content increases. For binary THF + H2 clathrates, the substitution of the THF molecules in the large cages with sets of 4H2 molecules increases the configurational energy. For the binary clathrates, various combinations of THF and H2 occupancies have similar configurational energies.

Journal Article↗

NMR shielding constants for hydrogen guest molecules in structure II clathrates.

Proton NMR shielding constants and chemical shifts for hydrogen guests in small and large cages of structure II clathrates are calculated using density-functional theory and the gauge-invariant atomic-orbital method. Shielding constants are calculated at the B3LYP level with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. The calculated chemical shifts are corrected with a linear regression to reproduce the experimental chemical shifts of a set of standard molecules. The calculated chemical shifts of single hydrogen molecules in the small and large structure II cages are 4.94 and 4.84 ppm, respectively, which show that within the error range of the method the H2 guest molecules in the small and large cages cannot be distinguished. Chemical shifts are also calculated for double occupancy of the hydrogen guests in small cages, and double, triple, and quadruple occupancy in large cages. Multiple occupancy changes the chemical shift of the hydrogen guests by approximately 0.2 ppm. The relative effects of other guest molecules and the cage on the chemical shift are studied for the cages with multiple occupancies.

Journal Article↗

Molecular-dynamics study of structure II hydrogen clathrates.

Molecular-dynamics simulations are used to study the stability of structure II hydrogen clathrates with different H2 guest occupancies. Simulations are done at pressures of 2.5 kbars and 1.013 bars and for temperatures ranging from 100 to 250 K. For a structure II unit cell with 136 water molecules, H2 guest molecule occupancies of 0-64 are studied with uniform occupancies among each type of cage. The simulations show that at 100 K and 2.5 kbars, the most stable configurations have single occupancy in the small cages and quadruple occupancy in the large cages. The optimum occupancy for the large cages decreases as the temperature is raised. Double occupancy in the small cages increases the energy of the structures and causes tetragonal distortion in the unit cell. The spatial distribution of the hydrogen guest molecules in the cages is determined by studying the guest-water and guest-guest radial distribution functions at various temperatures.

Journal Article↗

Probing the geometry and interconnectivity of pores in organic aerogels using hyperpolarized 129XE NMR spectroscopy.

Hyperpolarized (HP) 129Xe NMR was used for the first time to probe the geometry and interconnectivity of pores in RF aerogels and to correlate them with the [resorcinol]/[catalyst] (R/C) ratio. We have demonstrated that HP 129Xe NMR is an ideal method for accurately measuring the volume-to-surface-area (Vg/S) ratios for soft mesoporous materials without using any geometric models. The Vg/S parameter, which is related both to the geometry and the interconnectivity of the porous space, has been found to correlate strongly with the R/C ratio and exhibits an unusually large span: an increase in the R/C ratio from 50 to 500 results in about 5-fold rise in Vg/S. Unlike conventional techniques, HP 129Xe NMR spectroscopy probes the geometry and interconnectivity of the nano- or mesopores in soft materials, providing new insights into the pore structure.

Journal Article↗

(6,17-Dimethyl-8,15-diphenyldibenzo[b,i][1,4,8,11]-tetra-aza[14]annulenato)nickel(II) in solids: two guest-free polymorphs and inclusion compounds with methylene chloride and fullerene (C(60))-carbon disulfide.

Two guest-free polymorphs and two inclusion compounds of the macrocyclic title complex [NiL] have been isolated and characterized with single-crystal and/or powder XRD, solid-state (13)C NMR, and other methods. The inclusion compound with methylene chloride, [NiL](CH(2)Cl(2)), is stable in air and thermally stable up to approximately 128 degrees C. Its crystal structure is consistent with van der Waals packing of the host [NiL] and guest CH(2)Cl(2) molecules. The host complex has square-planar coordination of the nickel(II) center with four nitrogen atoms of the macrocycle with an average Ni-N distance of 1.86 A. The molecule has a saddle-shaped conformation with the guest molecule located between one phenylene and two phenyl rings of the host molecule. Isostructural compounds with chloroform and 2-chloropropane form only as mixtures along with a guest-free host polymorph. The inclusion compound with C(60) has a composition 3[NiL]*(C(60))*2(CS(2)) and here also the crystal structure is consistent with a van der Waals type of packing. Three crystallographically inequivalent [NiL] molecules have geometries similar to that in the inclusion compound with methylene chloride. The concave surfaces of the complex molecules form a spherical cavity for the C(60) molecule. At -100 degrees C the C(60) molecule is disordered over two orientations centered at the same site. (13)C NMR studies at room temperature show that the C(60) molecule is undergoing rapid pseudo-isotropic rotation. The stability and other properties of the title and related complexes are discussed.

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The effects of anion variation and ligand derivatization on silver coordination networks based upon weaker interactions.

This article presents a series of silver(I) coordination networks based upon nonchelating bidentate thioether ligands. Frameworks using AgOTs as the silver(I) starting material form two-dimensional frameworks and are quite stable as shown by differential scanning calorimetry/thermogravimetric analysis (DSC/TGA) data. The networks are sufficiently robust as to maintain the same layered motif when the basic skeleton of the ligand is sequentially derivatized with -OEt, OBu, and OHex groups. Crystal structures of the AgOTs complexes of the underivatized and bis(hexoxy) derivatives, compounds 5 and 8, respectively, are presented as well as powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data of the other complexes. For 5, C20H20S3O3Ag, crystal data are as follows: monoclinic, space group P2(1)/n, a = 11.8117(5) A, b = 7.8813(5) A, c = 22.3316(10) A, beta = 102.245(5) degrees, V = 2031.6(2) A(3), Z = 4. For 8, C30H44S3O6Ag, crystal data are as follows: triclinic, space group Ponebar a = 8.445(4) A, b = 10.855(5) A, c = 19.308(9) A, alpha = 84.53(1) degrees, beta = 78.76(1) degrees, gamma = 68.43(1) degrees V = 1613.9(13) A(3), Z = 2. Changing the silver(I) starting material to AgPF6 results in a shift to a one-dimensional structure, 9, as shown by X-ray crystallography and in highly compromised stability. For 9, C14H16S2N2PF6Ag, crystal data are as follows: monoclinic, space group P2/n, a = 11.9658(11) A, b = 3.9056(4) A, c = 19.6400(18) A, beta = 92.87(1) degrees, V = 916.70(15) A(3), Z = 4.

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Novel 4-vinylpyridine-extended metal-dibenzoylmethanate host frameworks: structure, polymorphism, and inclusion properties.

In this contribution we show that host materials based on metal dibenzoylmethanates (DBM) can be extended in a versatile way by decreasing the packing efficiency of the simpler metal DBM's reported earlier. Specifically, this can be accomplished by coordinating two 4-vinylpyridines (4-ViPy) to the metal (Ni or Co) DBM units to give [M(4-ViPy)2(DBM)2] host complexes. These display a remarkable polymorphism and an ability to form inclusion compounds with a large variety of organic species. Five non-clathrate phases representing three polymorphic types and twenty-eight inclusion compounds with nineteen guests, representing five structural types were isolated and studied in varying degrees of detail. The inclusion compounds can be prepared by recrystallization or by interaction of the solid host with guest vapor. In the latter case, the process realization, kinetics and final product strongly depend on the host polymorph chosen as starting material. Kinetic studies executed with powder XRD suggest that transient formation of inclusion compounds may occur even during solvent vapor induced transformation of one guest-free polymorph to another. The beta polymorph of the Ni-host reveals the strongest clathratogenic ability as well as a high selectivity towards certain homologues and isomers. Its properties give insight into the concept of "flexible zeolite mimics", or "apohosts", as this empty host form is energetically and structurally predisposed towards inclusion processes. In all eleven (three host and eight clathrate) structures studied by single crystal X-ray diffraction the [M(4-Vi-Py)2(DBM)2] complex molecule is transconfigured. In most, the host molecules show effective packing in one dimension by forming parallel chains. Guest species are located between the chains in cages or channels formed by combining voids in the host molecules belonging to adjacent chains. The corresponding Ni and Co versions of the compounds studied were similar.

Journal Article↗

In situ switching of sorbent functionality as monitored with hyperpolarized (129)Xe NMR spectroscopy.

In this contribution, we demonstrate that a material (organic zeolite mimetic coordination polymer [CuL(2)], where L = L(-) = CF(3)COCHCOC(OCH(3))(CH(3))(2)) can be endowed with its functionality in situ under molecular-level control. This process involves the isomerization of the ligands followed by phase interconversion from a dense to an open, porous form. The porous (beta) form of the complex reveals zeolite-like behavior but, unlike zeolites and many other hard porous frameworks, porosity may be created or destroyed at will by the application of suitable external stimuli. Contact with methylene chloride vapor was used to switch on the sorbent functionality, whereas switching off was accomplished with a temperature pulse. The transformations between functionally inactive alpha and active beta forms, as well as the amount of vacant pore space, were monitored in situ by observing the NMR spectrum of hyperpolarized (HP) Xe atom probes. For methylene chloride, the chemical shift of the coabsorbed HP Xe correlated directly with the amount of adsorbate in the pore system of the open framework, illustrating the use of HP Xe for following sorption kinetics. The adsorption of propane, as an inert adsorbate, was also monitored directly with (1)H NMR, with HP Xe and by BET measurements, revealing more complex behavior.

Journal Article↗

Nickel(II) and zinc(II) dibenzoylmethanates: molecular and crystal structure, polymorphism, and guest- or temperature-induced oligomerization.

Four forms of nickel(II) and two of zinc(II) dibenzoylmethanates have been isolated and characterized with powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses, differential scanning calorimetry, magnetic susceptibility measurements, and solid-state 13C cross-polarization/magic angle spinning NMR. Nickel dibenzoylmethanate, Ni(DBM)2 (DBM = PhCOCHCOPh-), forms three polymorphic forms (light-green, brown, and green) and a fourth clathrate form with guest benzene included. The light-green polymorph is metastable. Substituted benzenes induce recrystallization of the polymorph into a stable brown form (C30H22NiO4; a = 26.502(3) A, b = 5.774(1) A, c = 16.456(2) A, beta = 116.03(1) degrees; monoclinic, C2/c; Z = 4). Unlike the other forms, the brown form is diamagnetic and is comprised of monomers of the low-spin [Ni(DBM)2] complex. The Ni(II) is chelated by two DBM ligands in a square planar environment by four donor oxygen atoms. When heated, the brown form transforms to a green form which is stable above 202 degrees C (C90H66Ni3O12; a = 13.819(2) A, b = 16.252(2) A, c = 17.358(2) A, beta = 108.28(1) degrees; monoclinic, P2(1)/n; Z = 2). This polymorph is formed by van der Waals packing of trimers [Ni3(DBM)6] containing linear Ni3 clusters with an Ni-Ni distance of 2.81 A. The cluster is surrounded by six DBM ligands, providing a distorted octahedral environment about each Ni by six oxygen atoms. Benzene stabilizes the trimeric structure at room temperature, forming a [Ni3(DBM)6].2(benzene) inclusion compound (Ni-Ni distance of 2.83 A) with guest benzene molecules located in channels (C90H66Ni3O12 + 2(C6H6); a = 17.670(2) A, b = 20.945(3) A, c=11.209(2) A, beta = 102.57(1) degrees; monoclinic, P2(1)/c; Z = 2). Zinc dibenzoylmethanate has been prepared in two polymorphic forms. The monomeric form contains [Zn(DBM)2] molecules with the zinc center in a distorted tetrahedral environment of four oxygens from the two chelated DBMs (C30H22O4Zn; a = 10.288(2) A, b = 10.716(2) A, c = 12.243(2) A, alpha = 89.19(1) degrees, beta = 75.39(1) degrees, gamma = 64.18(1) degrees; triclinic, P1; Z = 2). Another, dimeric form contains [Zn2(DBM)4] species, with two zinc atoms separated by a distance of 3.14 A and each zinc coordinated by five oxygen atoms (C60H44O8Zn2; a = 25.792(3) A, b = 7.274(1) A, c = 24.307(2) A, beta = 90.58(1) degrees; monoclinic, C2/c; Z = 4). The polymorphic variety of the title complexes and the peculiarities of the Ni(II) and Zn(II) coordination environments are discussed in the context of using the complexes as precursors for new metal complex hosts.

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Chemical shift imaging with continuously flowing hyperpolarized xenon for the characterization of materials.

In this contribution we report new approaches to the MRI of materials using continuously produced laser-polarized (129)Xe gas. This leads to vastly improved sensitivity and makes new kinds of information available. The hyperpolarized xenon is produced in a continuous flow system that conveniently delivers the xenon at low partial pressure to probes for NMR and MRI experiments. We illustrate applications to the study of micropore and other kinds of void space and show for the first time that with flowing hyperpolarized xenon it is possible to obtain chemical-shift-resolved images in a relatively short time.

Calcium↗

A complex clathrate hydrate structure showing bimodal guest hydration.

Interactions between hydrophobic groups in water, as well as biomolecular hydration more generally, are intimately connected to the structure of liquid water around hydrophobic solutes. Such considerations have focused interest on clathrate hydrates: crystals in which a hydrogen-bonded network of water molecules encages hydrophobic guest molecules with which the water interacts only by non-directional van der Waals forces. Three structural families of clathrate hydrates have hitherto been recognized: cubic structure I (2M(S)-6M(L) x 46H2O), cubic structure II (16M(S) x 8M(L)-136H2O) and hexagonal structure H (M(L) x 3M(S) x 2M(S) x 34H2O) hydrates (here M(L) and M(S) are the hydrophobic guest sites associated with large and small cavities, respectively). Here we report a new hydrate structure: 1.67 choline hydroxide-tetra-n-propylammonium fluoride x 30.33H2O. This structure has a number of unusual features; in particular the choline guest exhibits both hydrophobic and hydrophilic modes of hydration. Formally the structure consists of alternating stacks of structure H and structure II hydrates, and might conceivably be found in those settings (such as seafloor deposits over natural-gas fields) in which clathrate hydrates form naturally.

Choline↗

Titanium carbide, nitride and carbonitrides: a 13C, 14N, 15N and 47,49Ti solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance study.

The first 47,49Ti, 13C, 14N and 15N solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of titanium carbide, nitride and a series of cubic carbonitrides have been obtained under both static and magic-angle spinning (MAS) conditions. The 15N samples were isotopically enriched by gas-solid exchange at 1000 degrees C in a closed system. The Ti spectra of the carbide and nitride are sharp, reflecting the well defined cubic symmetry of these compounds, but become considerably broadened in the carbonitride series, with the spectra being approximately the sum of TiC and TiN together with some small electric field gradient (EFG) effects. The resonance positions and widths of all the NMR spectra change as carbon is progressively replaced by nitrogen. A relationship is observed between the 13C chemical shift and the nitrogen content of the carbonitrides, suggesting a possible NMR method for estimating the composition of these compounds. Although electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of all these compounds show typically metallic behaviour, the NMR spectra show few effects attributable to conduction electrons, probably due to the lack of s-orbital contributions to the conduction band.

Carbon Isotopes↗