A heterotrinuclear [Pt2Fe] spin crossover (SCO) complex was developed and synthesized employing a ditopic bridging bpp-alkynyl ligand L and alkynyl coordinated PtII terpy units: [FeII(L-PtII)2]2(BF4)2 (1). We identified two different types of crystals of 1 which differ in their molecular packing and the number of co-crystallized solvent molecules: 1H (1·3.5CH2Cl2 in P1[combining macron]) and 1L...

This study explores the thermodynamic and vibrational properties of water in the three-dimensional environment of solvated ions and small molecules using molecular simulations. The spectrum of intermolecular vibrations in liquid solvents provides detailed information on the shape of the local potential energy surface, which in turn determines local thermodynamic properties such as the entropy. ...

We investigate the vibrational properties of ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) using molecular dynamics simulations. We compare the vibrational spectra of two UNCD models of average grain size 2 and 4 nm with single crystal diamond and an isolated nanodiamond (ND) particle. The vibrational spectra of the ND particle and UNCD models exhibit the effect of phonon confinement as well as undercoor...

We first review earlier work in which we computed the first-principles structural, vibrational, and lattice dielectric properties of the cubic, tetragonal, and monoclinic phases of ZrO2 and HfO2. We then discuss two approaches to the construction of realistic models of amorphous ZrO2: a bmelt-and-quenchQ ab-initio molecular dynamics approach, and an bactivation–relaxation techniqueQ. The struct...

In low-temperature spectroscopy, one is often interested in learning how strongly a chromophore interacts with its host matrix * . For example, by studying dye molecules embedded in frozen solutions or glassy matrices, one can learn interesting information about the matrix itself. Of more immediate interest for us is that the interaction of chromophores with their environment can have important...

Modelling of the effects of materials' microstructure on thermal transport is an essential tool for materials design, and is particularly relevant for thermoelectric (TE) materials converting heat into electrical energy. Precipitates dispersed in a TE matrix act as phonon-scattering centers, thereby reducing thermal conductivity. We introduce a practical approach to tailor a definite precipitat...

We conduct experiments on two-dimensional packings of colloidal thermosensitive hydrogel particles whose packing fraction can be tuned above the jamming transition by varying the temperature. By measuring displacement correlations between particles, we extract the vibrational properties of a corresponding "shadow" system with the same configuration and interactions, but for which the dynamics o...