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PubMed2006

Unusual crystalline and polycrystalline structures in methane hydrates.

We present previously unreported crystalline and polycrystalline structures for methane hydrates obtained at relatively low pressures. These structures, which contain unusual cages with 12 pentagonal faces and 3 hexagonal faces, were observed during the atomistic simulations of the crystal growth of sI and sII methane hydrates. These 51263 cages have a significant impact on the structure of the resulting crystal and could explain several experimental observations regarding in-situ transformations between sI and sII hydrates. We document a previously unidentified structure of methane hydrates which we designate structure sK. Additionally, we predict a polycrystalline structure consisting of this new hydrate and sI and suggest a mechanism for the formation of a polycrystalline structure consisting of sequences of sI and sII hydrates.

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PubMed2006

Synthesis of methane in nanotube channels by a flash.

Inorganic synthesis of organic molecules is a significant step for the primordial life. Generally, inorganic synthesis of methane necessitates, in addition to catalyst, a high-temperature and high-pressure environment. Here we will show that such an environment could be locally and instantly realized in the channels of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) even under room temperature and ultrahigh vacuum conditions just by a visible-light flash, owing to the ultra-photothermal effect of nanomaterials. As a result, methane signals were definitely detected by using a quadrupole mass spectrometer and an optical fiber spectrometer. The mechanisms were interpreted as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Our results provide an alternative explanation of abiogenic methane origin.

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PubMed2005

Rotational and vibrational relaxation of methane excited to 2nu3 in CH4/H2 and CH4/He mixtures at 296 and 193 K from double-resonance measurements.

A series of time-resolved IR-IR double-resonance experiments have been conducted where methane molecules are excited into a selected rovibrational level of the 2nu3(F2) vibrational substate of the tetradecad and where the time evolution of the population of the various energy levels is probed by a tunable continuous wave laser. The rotational relaxation and vibrational energy transfer processes occurring in methane upon inelastic CH4-H2 and CH4-He collisions have been investigated by this technique at room temperature and at 193 K. By probing transitions in which either the lower or the upper level is the laser-excited level, rotational depopulation rates in the 2nu3(F2) substate were measured. The rate constants for CH4-H2 collisions were found to be 17.7 +/- 2.0 and 18.9 +/- 2.0 micros(-1) Torr(-1) at 296 and 193 K, respectively, and for CH(4)-He collisions they are 12.1 +/- 1.5 and 16.0 +/- 2.0 micros(-1) Torr(-1) at the same temperatures. The vibrational relaxation was investigated by probing other stretching transitions such as 2nu3(F2) - nu3, nu3 + 2nu4 - 2nu4, and nu3 + nu4 - nu4. A kinetic model, taking into account the main collisional processes connecting energy levels up to 6000 cm(-1), that has been developed to describe the various relaxation pathways allowed us to calculate the temporal evolution of populations in these levels and to simulate double-resonance signals. The different rate coefficients of the vibrational relaxation processes involved in these mixtures were determined by fitting simulated signals to the observed signals corresponding to assigned transitions. For vibration to translation energy transfer processes, hydrogen is a much more efficient collision partner than helium, nitrogen, or methane itself at 193 K as well as at room temperature.

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PubMed2005

The conversion of methane to methanol: a reaction catalyzed by I+ or I2(+)?

The gas-phase reactions of I+ and I2(+) with methane were studied to determine which species is involved in the oxidation of methane to methyl sulfate, an intermediate in the production of methanol. We found that while I+ reacts readily with methane, I2(+) does not react in our experimental reaction conditions. Reaction products and rate constants are measured and reported. In addition, ab initio calculations were carried out to further understand the reaction mechanism. A revised mechanism of catalysis is proposed which is in excellent agreement with available experimental data and our theoretical computations.

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PubMed2005

Methane dissociative adsorption on the Pt(111) surface over the 300-500 K temperature and 1-10 Torr pressure ranges.

The dissociative adsorption of methane on the Pt(111) surface has been investigated and characterized over the 1-10 Torr pressure and 300-500 K temperature ranges using sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). At a reaction temperature of 300 K and a pressure of 1 Torr, C-H bond dissociation occurs in methane on the Pt(111) surface to produce adsorbed methyl (CH(3)) groups, carbon, and hydrogen. SFG results suggest that C-C coupling occurs at higher reaction temperatures and pressures. At 400 K, methyl groups react with adsorbed C to form ethylidyne (C(2)H(3)), which dehydrogenates at 500 K to form ethynyl (C(2)H) and methylidyne (CH) species, as shown by SFG. By 600 K, all of the ethylidyne has reacted to form the dissociation products ethynyl and methylidyne. Calculated C-H bond dissociation probabilities for methane, determined by carbon deposition measured by AES, are in the 10(-8) range and increase with increasing reaction temperature. A mechanism has been developed and is compared with conclusions from other experimental and theoretical studies using single crystals.

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PubMed2005

Evaluation of 1-site and 5-site models of methane on its adsorption on graphite and in graphitic slit pores.

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the 1- and 5-site models of methane on the description of adsorption on graphite surfaces and in graphitic slit pores. These models have been known to perform well in the description of the fluid-phase behavior and vapor-liquid equilibria. Their performance in adsorption is evaluated in this work for nonporous graphitized thermal carbon black, and simulation results are compared with the experimental data of Avgul and Kiselev (Chemistry and Physics of Carbon; Dekker: New York, 1970; Vol. 6, p 1). On this nonporous surface, it is found that these models perform as well on isotherms at various temperatures as they do on the experimental isosteric heat for adsorption on a graphite surface. They are then tested for their performance in predicting the adsorption isotherms in graphitic slit pores, in which we would like to explore the effect of confinement on the molecule packing. Pore widths of 10 and 20 A are chosen in this investigation, and we also study the effects of temperature by choosing 90.7, 113, and 273 K. The first two are for subcritical conditions, with 90.7 K being the triple point of methane and 113 K being its boiling point. The last temperature is chosen to represent the supercritical condition so that we can investigate the performance of these models at extremely high pressures. We have found that for the case of slit pores investigated in this paper, although the two models yield comparable pore densities (provided the accessible pore width is used in the calculation of pore density), the number of particles predicted by the 1-site model is always greater than that predicted by the 5-site model, regardless of whether temperature is subcritical or supercritical. This is due to the packing effect in the confined space such that a methane molecule modeled as a spherical particle in the 1-site model would pack better than the fused five-sphere model in the case of the 5-site model. Because the 5-site model better describes the liquid- and solid-phase behavior, we would argue that the packing density in small pores is better described with a more detailed 5-site model, and care should be exercised when using the 1-site model to study adsorption in small pores.

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PubMed2005

Optical microscopy and in situ Raman scattering of single crystalline ethylene hydrate and binary methane-ethylene hydrate at high pressures.

Visual observations through a microscope and in situ Raman measurements have been made for single crystalline ethylene hydrate (EH) and binary methane-ethylene hydrate (MEH) at pressures up to 3.7 GPa and room temperature. Both hydrates showed pressure-induced phase transitions at 1.6, 2.0, and 3.0 GPa for EH and at 1.7, 2.1, and 3.3 GPa for MEH. The cubic sI phase of EH and MEH remains stable up to 1.6 and 1.7 GPa, respectively, which are more widely ranging values than the values for the methane hydrate sI phase. In this sI phase of binary MEH, the cage occupancies by methane and ethylene molecules are investigated from Raman spectra. Above P = 3.0 GPa for EH and 3.3 GPa for MEH, they decomposed by associating with the formation of the polyethylene.

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PubMed2005

How active is the bend excitation of methane in the reaction with O(3P)?

The role of bending excitation of methane in the reaction with O(3P) is investigated in a crossed-beam experiment. Previous theories predicted that either stretch or bend excitation of the reactant promotes chemical reactivity and that initial bending excitation of CH4 preferentially yields umbrella-excited CH3 products. Experimentally, both predictions for bend-excited reagent were not borne out in this investigation. We found instead that compared to the ground-state reagent, bend-excited methane yields more vibrational excitation of the hydroxyl coproduct. The first reported product angular distributions show predominant backward scatterings for both ground-state and bend-excited methanes, which corroborate well with a direct rebound reaction mechanism.

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PubMed2006

Gas hydrates of argon and methane synthesized at high pressures: composition, thermal expansion, and self-preservation.

For the first time, the compositions of argon and methane high-pressure gas hydrates have been directly determined. The studied samples of the gas hydrates were prepared under high-pressure conditions and quenched at 77 K. The composition of the argon hydrate (structure H, stable at 460-770 MPa) was found to be Ar.(3.27 +/- 0.17)H(2)O. This result shows a good agreement with the refinement of the argon hydrate structure using neutron powder diffraction data and helps to rationalize the evolution of hydrate structures in the Ar-H(2)O system at high pressures. The quenched argon hydrate was found to dissociate in two steps. The first step (170-190 K) corresponds to a partial dissociation of the hydrate and the self-preservation of a residual part of the hydrate with an ice cover. Presumably, significant amounts of ice Ic form at this stage. The second step (210-230 K) corresponds to the dissociation of the residual part of the hydrate. The composition of the methane hydrate (cubic structure I, stable up to 620 MPa) was found to be CH(4).5.76H(2)O. Temperature dependence of the unit cell parameters for both hydrates has been also studied. Calculated from these results, the thermal expansivities for the structure H argon hydrate are alpha(a) = 76.6 K(-1) and alpha(c) = 77.4 K(-1) (in the 100-250 K temperature range) and for the cubic structure I methane hydrate are alpha(a) = 32.2 K(-1), alpha(a) = 53.0 K(-1), and alpha(a) = 73.5 K(-1) at 100, 150, and 200 K, respectively.

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PubMed2006

Reactivity of small Mo(x)Oy- clusters toward methane and ethane.

The reactions of Mo2Oy- suboxide clusters with both methane and ethane have been studied with a combination of mass spectrometry, anion photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. Reactions were carried out under "gentle" and "violent" conditions. For methane, a number of products appeared under the gentler source conditions that were more logically attributed to dissociation of Mo2Oy- clusters upon reacting with methane to form MoCH2-, Mo(O)CH2-, and HMo(O2)CH3-. With ethane, products observed under the same gentle conditions were Mo(O)C2H2-, Mo(O)C2H4-, Mo(O2)C2H4-, and Mo(O2)(C2H5)2-. As expected, more products were observed when the reactions were carried out under violent conditions. The photoelectron spectra obtained for these species were compared to calculated adiabatic and vertical electron affinities and vibrational frequencies, leading to definitive structural assignments for several of the products.

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PubMed2006

Composite thermal conductivity in a large heterogeneous porous methane hydrate sample.

By employing inverse modeling to analyze the laboratory data, we determined the composite thermal conductivity (k(theta), W/m/K) of a porous methane hydrate sample ranged between 0.25 and 0.58 W/m/K as a function of density. The calculated composite thermal diffusivities of porous hydrate sample ranged between 2.59 x 10(-7) m(2)/s and 3.71 x 10(-7) m(2)/s. The laboratory study involved a large heterogeneous sample (composed of hydrate, water, and methane gas). The measurements were conducted isobarically at 4.98 MPa over a temperature range of 277.3-279.1 K. Pressure and temperature were monitored at multiple locations in the sample. X-ray computed tomography (CT) was used to visualize and quantify the density changes that occurred during hydrate formation from granular ice. CT images showed that methane hydrate formed from granular ice was heterogeneous and provided an estimate of the sample density variation in the radial direction. This facilitated quantifying the density effect on composite thermal conductivity. This study showed that the sample heterogeneity should be considered in thermal conductivity measurements of hydrate systems. Mixing models (i.e., arithmetic, harmonic, geometric mean, and square root models) were compared to the estimated composite thermal conductivity determined by inverse modeling. The results of the arithmetic mean model showed the best agreement with the estimated composite thermal conductivity.

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PubMed2006

Relativistic DFT studies of dehydrogenation of methane by Pt cationic clusters: cooperative effect of bimetallic clusters.

The dehydrogenation reaction mechanisms of methane catalyzed by transition-metal clusters PtM(+) (M = Cu, Ag, Au) and Pt(n)(+) (n = 2-4) have been investigated theoretically. In the reactions of PtM(+) (M = Cu, Ag, Au) with CH(4), cleavage of the first C-H bond is quite facile without barrier. The second C-H bond activation and the release of H(2) from molecular complex are generally the rate-determining steps. In the reactions of platinum clusters Pt(n)()(+) (n = 2-4) with CH(4), the H(2) elimination from the dihydrogen complex is the rate-determining step. Spin crossover may occur in the reaction of Pt(2)(+) and CH(4). Pt(2)(+) and Pt(3)(+) can dehydrogenate methane efficiently due to remarkable thermodynamic stability of the products. The dehydrogenation of methane induced by Pt(4)(+) is less favored thermodynamically than Pt(n)()(+) (n = 1, 2, 3). On the basis of theoretical analyses, the differences in reactivity among the clusters and the nature of cooperative effect of the bimetallic cluster have been discussed. The calculated results provide a reasonable basis for understanding of experimental observations.

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PubMed2005

Monte carlo simulation and pore-size distribution analysis of the isosteric heat of adsorption of methane in activated carbon.

The isosteric heat of adsorption of methane in an activated carbon adsorbent has been modeled by Monte Carlo simulation, using a pore-size distribution (PSD) to relate simulation results for pores of different sizes to the experimental adsorbent. Excellent fits were obtained between experimental and simulated isosteric heats of adsorption of methane in BPL activated carbon. The PSD was then used to predict the adsorption of methane and ethane in the same carbon adsorbent, with good results. The PSD derived from isosteric heat data was shown to be richer in information than PSDs obtained by the more conventional method of fitting to isotherm data.

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PubMed2006

Heats of adsorption and adsorption heterogeneity for methane, ethane, and carbon dioxide in MCM-41.

We report the adsorption isotherms and the isosteric heats of adsorption of pure methane, ethane, and CO2 and a mixture of methane and CO2 in the periodic mesoporous silica MCM-41 using a multicomponent adsorption calorimeter of the Tian-Calvet type, looking in particular at the degree of heterogeneity in the adsorption of these species. The adsorption of methane and ethane in MCM-41 was found to be essentially homogeneous, while the adsorption of pure CO2 and of CO2 from a CO2/methane mixture was found to be significantly heterogeneous, reflecting the electrostatic interactions between CO2 and the adsorbent.

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PubMed2004

Synthesis of a macrobicycle incorporating the tris(pyrazolyl)methane ligand.

Steric crowding of the 3-position of tris(pyrazolyl)borate and -methane ligands has produced tetrahedral metal complexes with controlled reactivity. As an alternative, we propose to incorporate the tris(pyrazolyl)methane chelate in a macrobicyclic structure in order to create a cavity with well-defined dimensions and shape. Acid-catalyzed equilibration of excess of the new pyrazole 3-(1H-pyrazol-3-yl)benzenemethanethiol acetate with HC(3,5-Me(2)pz)(3) followed by hydrolysis affords a functionalized tris(pyrazolyl)methane, which reacts with 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)benzene in K(2)CO(3)/DMF to give the title compound. [structure: see text]

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PubMed2000

The role of rotational excitation in the activated dissociative chemisorption of vibrationally excited methane on Ni(100).

We have measured the sticking probability of methane excited to v = 1 of the v3 antisymmetric C-H stretching vibration on a clean Ni(100) surface as a function of rotational state (J = 0, 1, 2 and 3) and have investigated the effect of Coriolis-mixing on reactivity. The data span a wide range of kinetic energies (9-49 kJ mol-1) and indicate that rotational excitation does not alter reactivity by more than a factor of two, even at low molecular speeds that allow for considerable rotation of the molecule during the interaction with the surface. In addition, rotation-induced Coriolis-splitting of the v3 mode into F+, F0 and F- states does not significantly affect the reactivity for J = 1 at 49 kJ mol-1 translational energy, even though the nuclear motions of these states differ. The lack of a pronounced rotational energy effect in methane dissociation on Ni(100) suggests that our previous results for (v = 1, v3, J = 2) are representative of all rovibrational sublevels of this vibrational mode. These experiments shed light on the relative importance of rotational hindering and dynamical steering mechanisms in the dissociative chemisorption on Ni(100) and guide future attempts to accurately model methane dissociation on nickel surfaces.

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PubMed2002

Breakthrough in the direct conversion of methane into c1-oxygenates.

The partial oxidation of methane to CH3OH and HCHO (C1-oxygenates) was evaluated over a low surface area V2O5/SiO2 catalyst. The introduction of low amounts of NO (0-2.92% vol) to the reaction feed strongly enhanced both the conversion of methane and selectivity to C1-oxygenates. In the presence of NO, both the reaction temperature and the CH4/O2 ratio affected selectivity to CH3OH and HCHO. Selectivity values of C1-oxygenates as high as 40% at a methane conversion close to 40% were obtained.

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PubMed2005

Coordination, organometallic and related chemistry of tris(pyrazolyl)methane ligands.

Tris(pyrazolyl)methanes are the neutral analogues of the widely exploited and highly useful tris(pyrazolyl)hydroborates, yet by comparison with their boron based counterparts their chemistry is underdeveloped. Recent breakthroughs in the synthesis of ring-substituted tris(pyrazolyl)methanes offer the opportunity for the development of this useful and promising class of ligand. This review summarises the current state of the coordination and organometallic chemistry of tris(pyrazolyl)methanes and highlights areas in which development is likely to occur.

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