Concentration-Dependent Solvation Structure and Dynamics of Aqueous Sulfuric Acid Using Multinuclear NMR and DFT

Molecular Dynamics: Investigating the Self-Association of Stearic Acid and Heteroassociation of Stearic Acid-Water in Cyclohexane

The self-association of molecular additives determines the chemical potential in the bulk and, in turn, the adsorbed amount onto a surface for a number of important commercial applications such as wind turbines. Molecular dynamics simulations have been utilized as a technique to study the self-association of model additive, stearic acid, and heteroassociation of stearic acid-water, in cyclohexane as a function of temperature. Reasonable values of the enthalpies and equilibrium constants were determined for stearic acid in cyclohexane. The role of water, nearly always present in commercial systems, in solution association was also studied to determine the thermodynamics parameters of hydration (i.e., acid-water heteroassociation). There are very few other studies reporting on these important heteroassociation parameters. The association constants and enthalpies of association obtained from molecular dynamics are in good agreement with experimental data in the literature. A combination of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) data and molecular dynamics simulation results allows the fraction of open dimers (single hydrogen-bonded dimers) to be estimated in cyclohexane (which is not possible from the experimental FTIR data alone). The fraction of open dimers of stearic acid in cyclohexane at room temperature is ∼1.5% at 25 °C and ∼4% at 70 °C.

17 O nuclear magnetic resonance: Recent advances and applications

The present review is focused on the most recent achievements in the application of liquid phase 17 O nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to inorganic, organic, and biochemical molecules focusing on their structure, conformations, and (bio)chemical behavior. The review is composed of four basic parts, namely, (1) simple molecules; (2) water and hydrogen bonding; (3) metal oxides, clusters, and complexes; and (4) biological molecules. Experimental 17 O NMR chemical shifts are thoroughly tabulated. They span a range of as much as almost 650 ppm (from -35.6 to +610.0 ppm) for inorganic and organic molecules, whereas this range is much wider for biological species being of about 1350 ppm (from -12 to +1332 ppm), and in the case of hemoproteins and heme-model compounds, isotropic chemical shifts of up to 2500 ppm were observed. The general prospects and caveats in the modern development of the liquid phase 17 O NMR in chemistry and biochemistry are critically discussed and briefly outlined in view of their future applications.

Structure of Sulfuric Acid Solutions Using Pair Distribution Function Analysis

Solvation and mesoscale ordering of sulfuric acid and other strong acid solutions leads to suppressed freezing points and strong rheological changes with varying concentration. While the solid-state structures are well-understood, studies focused on the evolving solvation structure in the solution phase have probed a limited concentration range (∼1-6 M). This study applies a total scattering approach in both the wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and pair distribution function (PDF) regimes to elucidate the evolving solvation structure over its full range of acid concentration (0-18 M). The emergence of a prepeak in the WAXS regime at intermediate concentrations indicates a transition from noninteracting sulfate molecules in the dilute limit to sterically limited sulfates at concentrations near its deep eutectic point. Fits to the PDF data quantify this trend, showing a transition from octahedrally hydrated sulfates up to 6-7 M concentrations, followed by gradual dehydration, and eventually reaching a solution structure similar to that of water-in-salt electrolyte systems at high acid concentrations.