V. Van Speybroeck

As the chemical structures of radiation damaged molecules may vary greatly from their undamaged counterparts, investigation and description of radiation damaged structures is commonly biased by the researcher. Radical formation from ionizing radiation in crystalline α-L-rhamnose monohydrate has been investigated using a new method where the selection of radical structures is unbiased by the researcher. The method is based on using ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) studies to investigate how ionization damage can form, change and move. Diversity in the radical production is gained by using different points on the potential energy surface of the intact crystal as starting points for the ionizations and letting the initial velocities of the nuclei after ionization be generated randomly. 160 ab initio MD runs produced 12 unique radical structures for investigation. Out of these, 7 of the potential products have never previously been discussed, and 3 products are found to match with radicals previously observed by electron magnetic resonance experiments

A new concept has been developed for generating highly dispersed base sites on metal-organic framework (MOF) lattices. The base catalytic activity of two alkaline earth MOFs, M2(BTC)(NO3)(DMF) (M = Ba or Sr, H3BTC = 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide) was studied as a function of their activation procedure. The catalytic activity in Knoevenagel condensation and Michael addition reactions was found to increase strongly with activation temperature. Physicochemical characterization using FTIR, 13C CP MAS NMR, PXRD, XPS, TGA-MS, SEM, EPR, N2 physisorption and nitrate content analysis shows that during activation, up to 85 % of the nitrate anions are selectively removed from the structure and replaced with other charge compensating anions such as O2-. The defect sites generated via this activation act as new strong basic sites within the catalyst structure. A fluorescence microscopic visualization of the activity convincingly proves that the activity is exclusively associated with the hexagonal crystals, and that reaction proceeds inside the crystal’s interior. Theoretical analysis of the Ba-material shows that the basicity of the proposed Ba2+-O2--Ba2+ motives is close to that of edge sites in BaO.

All silica COK-14/-COK-14 with OKO topology is the first case of a zeolite which reversibly transforms from a systematically interrupted to a fully connected state and back. Analysis of the opening/closing behavior allowed the study of entropy and framework flexibility as determinants for the stability of zeolite topologies, which, until now, has been experimentally inaccessible. Interconversion of the all-silica COK-14 zeolite with fully connected OKO topology and its -COK-14 variant with systematic framework interruption was investigated using high-temperature XRD, thermogravimetric analysis, Si-29 MAS NMR, nitrogen adsorption and a range of modelling techniques. Specific framework bonds in the OKO framework can be reversibly hydrolyzed and condensed. Structural silanols of the parent -COK-14, prepared by degermanation of the IM-12 zeolite, were condensed by heating at 923 K, and hydrolyzed again to the initial state by contacting the zeolite with warm water. Molecular modelling revealed an inversion of the relative stabilities for both variants depending on temperature and hydration. Condensation of the structural silanols in -COK-14 to COK-14 is entropy driven, mainly resulting from the release of water molecules. Framework reopening in the presence of water is spontaneous due to the high rigidity of the fully connected OKO framework. Isomorphous substitution was demonstrated as a viable option for stabilization of the fully connected OKO framework as this renders the closed framework flexible.

The hybrid frameworks M2dobdc (dobdc4− = 2,5-dioxidoterephthalate, M2+ = Mg2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+), commonly known as CPO-27 or MOF-74, are shown to be active catalysts in base-catalyzed reactions such as Knoevenagel condensations or Michael additions. Rather than utilizing N-functionalized linkers as a source of basicity, the intrinsic basicity of these materials arises from the presence of the phenolate oxygen atoms coordinated to the metal ions. The overall activity is due to a complex interplay of the basic properties of these structural phenolates and the reactant binding characteristics of the coordinatively unsaturated sites. The nature of the active site and the order of activity between the different M2dobdc materials were rationalized via computational efforts; the most active material, both in theory and in experiment, is the Ni-containing variant. The basicity of Ni2dobdc was experimentally proven by chemisorption of pyrrole and observation by IR spectroscopy.

This work aims at a critical assessment of properties predicting or extracting information on the density and structure of liquids. State-of-the-art NVT and NpT molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed on five liquids: methanol, chloroform, acetonitrile, tetrahydrofuran and ethanol. These simulations allow the computation of properties based on first principles, including the equilibrium density and radial distribution functions (RDFs), characterizing the liquid structure. Refinements have been incorporated in the MD simulations by taking into account Basis Set Superposition Errors (BSSE). An extended BSSE model for an instantaneous evaluation of the BSSE corrections has been proposed, and their impact on the liquid properties has been assessed. If available, the theoretical RDFs have been compared with the experimentally derived RDFs. For some liquids significant discrepancies have been observed and a profound but critical investigation is presented to unravel the origin of these deficiencies. This discussion is focused on tetrahydrofuran where the experiment reveals some prominent peaks completely missing in any MD simulation. Experiments providing information on liquid structure consist mainly of neutron diffraction measurements offering total structure factors as the primary observables. The splitting of these factors in reciprocal space into intra- and intermolecular contributions is extensively discussed, together with their sensitivity in reproducing correct RDFs in coordinate space.