Effect of electron exchange in positronium-hydrogen scattering

The elastic and inelastic scattering of ortho-positronium (Ps) by the hydrogen atom have been investigated using a three-Ps-state close-coupling approximation. The higher (n greater than or equal to 3) excitations and ionization of the Ps atom are treated within the framework of the Born approximation. In both cases the effect of electron exchange has been included by a parameter-free nonlocal model potential derived from an antisymmetrization of the wavefunction followed by the removal of nonorthogonality. Calculations are reported of scattering lengths,phase shifts, and of elastic, Ps excitation, and total cross sections. The trend of present target elastic total cross section agrees qualitatively with available experimental results on Ps-impact scattering.

Inelastic neutron scattering in spectroscopic studies of hydrogen on carbon-supported catalysts-experimental spectra and computed spectra of model systems

Inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy has been used to observe and characterise hydrogen on the carbon component of a Pt/C catalyst. INS provides the complete vibration spectrum of coronene, regarded as a molecular model of a graphite layer. The vibrational modes are assigned with the aid of ab initio density functional theory calculations and the INS spectra by the a-CLIMAX program. A spectrum for which the H modes of coronene have been computationally suppressed, a carbon-only coronene spectrum, is a better representation of the spectrum of a graphite layer than is coronene itself. Dihydrogen dosing of a Pt/C catalyst caused amplification of the surface modes of carbon, an effect described as H riding on carbon. From the enhancement of the low energy carbon modes (100-600 cm(-1)) it is concluded that spillover hydrogen becomes attached to dangling bonds at the edges of graphitic regions of the carbon support. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Hydrogen spillover on carbon-supported metal catalysts studied by inelastic neutron scattering. Surface vibrational states and hydrogen riding modes

Hydrogen spillover on carbon-supported precious metal catalysts has been investigated with inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectroscopy. The aim, which was fully realized, was to identify spillover hydrogen on the carbon support. The inelastic neutron scattering spectra of Pt/C, Ru/C, and PtRu/C fuel cell catalysts dosed with hydrogen were determined in two sets of experiments: with the catalyst in the neutron beam and, using an annular cell, with carbon in the beam and catalyst pellets at the edge of the cell excluded from the beam. The vibrational modes observed in the INS spectra were assigned with reference to the INS of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, coronene, taken as a molecular model of a graphite layer, and with the aid of computational modeling. Two forms of spillover hydrogen were identified: H at edge sites of a graphite layer (formed after ambient dissociative chemisorption of H-2), and a weakly bound layer of mobile H atoms (formed by surface diffusion of H atoms after dissociative chernisorption of H-2 at 500 K). The INS spectra exhibited characteristic riding modes of H on carbon and on Pt or Ru. In these riding modes H atoms move in phase with vibrations of the carbon and metal lattices. The lattice modes are amplified by neutron scattering from the H atoms attached to lattice atoms. Uptake of hydrogen, and spillover, was greater for the Ru containing catalysts than for the Pt/C catalyst. The INS experiments have thus directly demonstrated H spillover to the carbon support of these metal catalysts.

Hydrogen adsorption in a copper ZSM5 zeolite: an inelastic neutron scattering study

Currently microporous oxidic materials including zeolites are attracting interest as potential hydrogen storage materials. Understanding how molecular hydrogen interacts with these materials is important in the rational development of hydrogen storage materials and is also challenging theoretically. In this paper, we present an incoherent inelastic neutron scattering (INS) study of the adsorption of molecular hydrogen and hydrogen deuteride (HD) in a copper substituted ZSM5 zeolite varying the hydrogen dosage and temperature. We have demonstrated how inelastic neutron scattering can help us understand the interaction of H-2 molecules with a binding site in a particular microporous material, Cu ZSM5, and by implication of other similar materials. The H-2 molecule is bound as a single species lying parallel with the surface. As H-2 dosing increases, lateral interactions between the adsorbed H-2 molecules become apparent. With rising temperature of measurement up to 70 K (the limit of our experiments), H-2 molecules remain bound to the surface equivalent to a liquid or solid H-2 phase. The implication is that hydrogen is bound rather strongly in Cu ZSM5. Using the simple model for the anisotropic interaction to calculate the energy levels splitting, we found that the measured rotational constant of the hydrogen molecule is reduced as a consequence of adsorption by the Cu ZSM5. From the decrease in total signal intensity with increasing temperature, we were able to observe the conversion of para-hydrogen into ortho-hydrogen at paramagnetic centres and so determine the fraction of paramagnetic sites occupied by hydrogen molecules, ca. 60%. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Positronium-hydrogen atom elastic scattering at medium energies

We study the elastic scattering of positronium atoms by hydrogen atoms at medium energies using partial-wave Born-Oppenheimer (BO) exchange amplitudes and report accurate BO cross sections in the energy range 0 to 60 eV. The present BO results agree with a 22-state R-matrix and a five-state coupled-channel model potential calculation, but disagree strongly with a conventional close-coupling calculation as well as its input BO amplitudes at medium energies.

Positronium scattering by a hydrogen molecule including exchange

We perform a three-positronium (Ps) state [Ps(ls,2s,2p)] coupled-channel calculation of Ps-H-2 scattering including the effect of electron exchange. At medium energies, higher excitations and ionization of Ps are treated within the framework of the first Born approximation. In both cases exchange is included using a recently proposed nonlocal model exchange potential which is free of non-orthogonality problems common in the usual antisymmetrization scheme. The present total cross sections at low and medium energies are in encouraging agreement with experiment.

Positronium-hydrogen-atom scattering in a five-state model

The scattering of orthopositronium (Ps) by hydrogen atoms has been investigated in a five-state coupled-channel model allowing for Ps(1s)H(2s,2p) and Ps(2s,2p)H(1s) excitations using a recently proposed electron-exchange model potential. The higher (n greater than or equal to 3) excitations and ionization of the Ps atom are calculated using the first Born approximation. Calculations are reported of scattering lengths, phase shifts. elastic, Ps and H excitation, and total cross sections. Remarkable correlations are observed between the S-wave Ps-H binding energy and the singlet scattering length, effective range, and resonance energy obtained in various model calculations. These correlations suggest that if a Ps-H dynamical model yields the correct result for one of these four observables, it is expected to lead to the correct result for the other three. The present model, which is constructed so as to reproduce the Ps-H resonance at 4.01 eV, automatically yields a Ps-H bound state at - 1.05 eV that compares well with the accurate value of - 1.067 eV. The model leads to a singlet scattering length of 3.72a(0) and effective range of 1.67a(0), whereas the correlations suggest the precise values of 3.50a(0) and 1.65a(0) for these observables, respectively. [S1050-2947(99)07703-3].

Convergent variational calculation of positronium-hydrogen-atom scattering lengths

We present a convergent variational basis-set calculational scheme for elastic scattering of the positronium atom by the hydrogen atom in S wave. Highly correlated trial functions with appropriate symmetry are needed to achieve convergence. We report convergent results for scattering lengths in atomic units for both singlet (= 3.49 +/-0.20) and triplet (= 2.46 +/-0.10) states.

Differential cross sections for elastic and inelastic positronium-hydrogen-atom scattering

A time reversal symmetric regularized electron exchange model was used to elastic scattering, target elastic Ps excitations and target inelastic excitation of hydrogen in a five state coupled model. A singlet Ps-H-S-wave resonance at 4.01 eV of width 0.15 eV and a P-wave resonance at 5.08 eV of width 0.004 eV were obtained using this model. The effect on the convergence of the coupled-channel scheme due to the inclusion of the excited Ps and H states was also analyzed.

Effect of hydrogen bond formation on the elastic molecular scattering: a case study with methanol

Rayleigh optical activities of small hydrogen-bonded methanol clusters containing two to five molecules are reported. For the methanol trimer, tetramer, and pentamer both cyclic and linear structures are considered. After the geometry optimizations, the dipole moments and the dipole polarizabilities (mean, interaction, and anisotropic components) are calculated using HF, MP2 and DFT (B3LYP, B3P86 and BH&HLYP) with aug-cc-pVDZ extended basis set. The polarizabilities are used to analyse the depolarization ratios and the Rayleigh scattering activities. The variations in the activity and in the depolarization for Rayleigh scattered radiation with the increase in the cluster size for both cyclic and linear structures are analysed.

Magnetic Resonance Experiments with Atomic Hydrogen

In this thesis three experiments with atomic hydrogen (H) at low temperatures T<1 K are presented. Experiments were carried out with two- (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) H gas, and with H atoms trapped in solid H2 matrix. The main focus of this work is on interatomic interactions, which have certain specific features in these three systems considered. A common feature is the very high density of atomic hydrogen, the systems are close to quantum degeneracy. Short range interactions in collisions between atoms are important in gaseous H. The system of H in H₂ differ dramatically because atoms remain fixed in the H₂ lattice and properties are governed by long-range interactions with the solid matrix and with H atoms. The main tools in our studies were the methods of magnetic resonance, with electron spin resonance (ESR) at 128 GHz being used as the principal detection method. For the first time in experiments with H in high magnetic fields and at low temperatures we combined ESR and NMR to perform electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) as well as coherent two-photon spectroscopy. This allowed to distinguish between different types of interactions in the magnetic resonance spectra. Experiments with 2D H gas utilized the thermal compression method in homogeneous magnetic field, developed in our laboratory. In this work methods were developed for direct studies of 3D H at high density, and for creating high density samples of H in H₂. We measured magnetic resonance line shifts due to collisions in the 2D and 3D H gases. First we observed that the cold collision shift in 2D H gas composed of atoms in a single hyperfine state is much smaller than predicted by the mean-field theory. This motivated us to carry out similar experiments with 3D H. In 3D H the cold collision shift was found to be an order of magnitude smaller for atoms in a single hyperfine state than that for a mixture of atoms in two different hyperfine states. The collisional shifts were found to be in fair agreement with the theory, which takes into account symmetrization of the wave functions of the colliding atoms. The origin of the small shift in the 2D H composed of single hyperfine state atoms is not yet understood. The measurement of the shift in 3D H provides experimental determination for the difference of the scattering lengths of ground state atoms. The experiment with H atoms captured in H2 matrix at temperatures below 1 K originated from our work with H gas. We found out that samples of H in H2 were formed during recombination of gas phase H, enabling sample preparation at temperatures below 0.5 K. Alternatively, we created the samples by electron impact dissociation of H₂ molecules in situ in the solid. By the latter method we reached highest densities of H atoms reported so far, 3.5(5)x10¹⁹ cm^-3. The H atoms were found to be stable for weeks at temperatures below 0.5 K. The observation of dipolar interaction effects provides a verification for the density measurement. Our results point to two different sites for H atoms in H2 lattice. The steady-state nuclear polarizations of the atoms were found to be non-thermal. The possibility for further increase of the impurity H density is considered. At higher densities and lower temperatures it might be possible to observe phenomena related to quantum degeneracy in solid.

A study by high energy transfer inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy of the mineral fraction of ox femur bone

We have used high energy transfer (HET) inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy to measure the vibrational modes in the spectra of hydroxyapatite, bone and brushite to confirm our earlier work that only a fraction of the hydroxyl groups in bone mineral are substituted. The HET spectra are better observed due to the higher scattering cross section of hydrogen compared with the other elements in the calcium phosphate compounds. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Molecular aluminum hydrides identified by inelastic neutron scattering during H-2 regeneration of catalyst-doped NaAlH4

Catalyst-doped sodium aluminum hydrides have been intensively studied as solid hydrogen carriers for onboard proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Although the importance of catalyst choice in enhancing kinetics for both hydrogen uptake and release of this hydride material has long been recognized, the nature of the active species and the mechanism of catalytic action are unclear. We have shown by inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectroscopy that a volatile molecular aluminum hydride is formed during the early stage of H-2 re-eneration of a depleted, catalyst-doped sodium aluminum hydride. Computational modeling of the INS spectra suggested the formation of AlH3 and oligomers (AlH3)(n) (Al2H6, Al3H9, and Al4H12 clusters), which are pertinent to the mechanism of hydrogen storage. This paper demonstrates, for the first time, the existence of these volatile species.