Adsorption of nitrate on kaolinite surfaces: a theoretical study.

The interactions of HNO(3) and NO(3)(-) with kaolinite surfaces are important in the reaction of airborne clay mineral particles with atmospheric trace gases. Theoretical calculations at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level were performed on surface clusters of HNO(3) on kaolinite, on monodentate, on bidentate, and on two bridged complex structures of NO(3)(-) on kaolinite and on gas phase and solvated NO(3)(-). The results are compatible with the ranges assigned in the literature for NO(3)(-) on mineral surfaces for the frequency of the vibrational symmetric stretches (ν(1)) and for the low-frequency branch of the asymmetric stretches (ν(3)), with slightly higher frequencies reported for the bridged models. For the higher-frequency branch of the asymmetric stretches measured on kaolinite (Angelini et al.), our calculations match the assigned values for the monodentate surface complex, while predicting an inverse assignment for the frequencies of the bidentate and bridged complexes.

Molecular modeling of polymer-clay nanocomposite precursors: Lysine in montmorillonite interlayers.

The layered structure of clays with interlayer cations leads to unique chemical and mechanical properties, which have been capitalized on in the field of polymer/layered silicate nanocomposites. Hydrophilic silica surfaces can become organophilic with the inclusion of alkylammonium cations, which improve the wetting characteristics of the polymer matrix. In fact, the molecular level interactions of amino acids, either natural or non-natural, with clay surfaces are at the heart of fields of study as diverse as nanocomposites fabrication, drug delivery, bio-remediation of soils and catalysis of biological polymers, to name a few. The ubiquity of these systems and the potential uses to which they could be put suggests the necessity of a deeper understanding of the interplay of bonds, conformations, and configurations between the molecules and the hosts. The interactions of the amino acid lysine with sodium montmorillonite were studied using theoretical molecular modeling methods. The interlayer spacing of montmorillonite was increased by incorporating water molecules and allowing the system to evolve with molecular mechanics. Care was taken to retain the sodium cations in the interlayer. The initial amino acid conformation was obtained surrounding the molecule with numerous discrete water molecules and minimizing the system at the semi empirical level. The optimized amino acid was then placed in the interlayer space in a series of initial positions. Molecular mechanics calculations were performed and the final positions were analyzed. The results tended to indicate the preponderance of configurations which included surface-sodium-amino acid complexes with a variety of spatial arrangements. These results were compared with molecular dynamics calculations of similar systems from the literature.

Molecular orbital theory study on surface complex structures of glyphosate on goethite: calculation of vibrational frequencies.

Six possible complexes of glyphosate (O-PO(OH)-CH2NH2+CH2CO2H) with an Fe-hydroxide dimer were modeled with hybrid molecular orbital/density functional theory calculations to establish the nature of the bonds of glyphosate on goethite (alpha-FeOOH). Monodentate and bidentate coordination of the phosphonate moiety were considered, using three forms of the glyphosate molecule appropriate for different pH ranges: glyphosate with both phosphonate and amino moieties protonated, glyphosate with unprotonated phosphonates, and glyphosate with both unprotonated phosphonates and no hydrogen ion on the amino group. The calculated infrared vibrational modes were compared to experimental values, finding particularly good agreements with the monodentate complexes in all the pH ranges.