Search

The rotational motion of the methyl group in pentafluoroanisole (PFA) and in pentafluorotoluene (PFT), respectively, was investigated by quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS). For solid PFA, the rotation can be described by a model for uniaxial rotational jumps between three equidistant sites on a circle. Similar to the molecular structure of alpha-toluene, two nonequivalent methyl groups in the unit cell with two different rotational barriers were found for solid PFT. From the analysis of the quasielastic scattering, the activation energies were determined. The barrier heights could be evaluated from bands in the inelastic part of the spectra. The methyl group dynamics in the liquid state is evaluated for both substances using different scattering functions, which are discussed. An empirical model for the description of the contribution of methyl groups in liquids of small organic molecules to the QENS spectra is presented. It is demonstrated that the process of methyl group rotation in the liquid phase is nearly free of a barrier.

Conventional techniques to measure diffusion coefficients in liquid metals and alloys are hampered by buoyancy-driven convective fluid flow and chemical reactions of the liquids with container material. To overcome these obstacles we combined containerless processing via electromagnetic levitation with quasielastic neutron scattering. This combination allowed us to study the atomic self-motion in liquid nickel within a broad temperature range from $200\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ above to more than $200\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ below the melting point, in the metastable regime of an undercooled melt. Other than in liquid Sn the temperature dependence of the Ni self-diffusion coefficient is well described with an Arrhenius law.

Differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction play a prominent role in the characterization of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) dispersions. This review shortly outlines the measurement principles of these two techniques and summarizes their applications in the field of nanodispersions of solid lipids. These methods are particularly useful for the characterization of the matrix state, polymorphism and phase behavior of the nanoparticles which may be affected by, for example, the small particle size and the composition of the dispersions. The basics of small angle X-ray and neutron scattering which are also very promising methods for the characterization of LNPs are explained in some more detail. Examples for their use in the area of solid LNPs regarding the evaluation of particle size effects and the formation of superstructures in the nanoparticle dispersions are given. Some technical questions concerning the use of the different characterization techniques in the field of LNP research are also addressed.

The effect of spontaneous particle self-assembly into stack-like structures occurring in dispersions of melt-homogenized tripalmitin nanocrystals (solid lipid nanoparticles; SLNs) was studied in dependence of lipid concentration, stabilizer type, stabilizer concentration, and particle size.Tripalmitin nanosuspensions with concentrations ranging from 20 to 200 mg/g were prepared by high-pressure melt homogenization. The formulations were characterized by synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), and freeze-fracture transmission electron microscopy (TEM).Dispersions of partly self-assembled particles could be derived both with anionic or cationic surfactants. Particle self-assemblies were observed in such formulations when the tripalmitin concentration exceeds 40 mg/g. Further increase of the lipid concentration enhances particle self-assembly. The tendency to form self-assemblies is also influenced by the particle shape. The interparticle distances in stacked lamellae are determined by the tripalmitin concentration and by the surfactant concentration.Parallel alignment of tripalmitin nanoplatelets is a completely reversible and concentration-dependent effect that can be attributed to the overlap of the exclusion volumes of the anisometric particles. The usefulness of this effect might be explored for the formulation of drug delivery systems.

The flow behavior of low concentrated dispersions of solid lipid nanoparticles consisting of either trimyristin, tripalmitin or tristearin and different ionic and nonionic stabilizer blends were investigated using a rheometer with cone and plate apparatus and an Ubbelohde type capillary viscometer. The data demonstrate a remarkable influence of the matrix material, the stabilizer composition and the presence of small amounts of sodium chloride on the formulations' rheological properties. A significant increase in dispersion viscosity was found in the triglyceride sequence trimyristin < tripalmitin < tristearin. This effect can be clearly attributed to an increase in particle shape anisometry with increasing length of the lipid's fatty acid chains. Surfactants, which are present during the crystallization of the dispersed lipid seem to have an additional effect on the nanoparticle shape. Beyond this, ionic surfactants and other salts affect the dispersion viscosity by altering the dimension of the electrical double layer ("second electroviscous effect").

Derivatives of dimethylalkylchlorosilanes are novel substances which may be used in formulations for drug targeting. In order to design their properties it is essential to perform physicochemical characterization. For this purpose, a combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), FT-Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction is well suited. For the starting material dimethyloctadecylchlorosilane (DMOC), the assignment of Raman bands is discussed. The influence of sugar-containing head groups on the structures of the hydrocarbon chains of 1-O-(dimethyldodecylsilyl)-[2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside] and 1-O-(dimethyloctadecylsilyl)-[2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside] was investigated using the band position of the symmetric methylene mode. The temperature dependence of conformationally sensitive bands in the CH(2)-stretching region (2800-2900 cm(-1)), C-C-stretching region (1000-1150 cm(-1)) and CH(3)-rocking region (830-900 cm(-1)) was studied to characterize the state of order of the alkyl chains. Using X-ray diffraction, the repeating distances of layered structures was determined. The phase transitions occurring were found to be completely reversible. The subcell of DMOC shows an orthorhombic perpendicular packing structure in the crystalline state.

Suspensions of platelet-like shaped tripalmitin nanocrystals stabilized by the pure lecithin DLPC and the lecithin blend S100, respectively, have been studied by small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and optical observation of their birefringence at different tripalmitin (PPP) concentrations φ PPP . It could be demonstrated that the platelets of these potential drug delivery systems start to form a liquid crystalline phase already at pharmaceutically relevant concentrations φ PPP of less than 10 wt. %. The details of this liquid crystalline phase are described here for the first time. As in a previous study [A. Illing et al. , Pharm. Res.21, 592 (2004)] some platelets are found to self-assemble into lamellar stacks above a critical tripalmitin concentration φ P P P s t of 4 wt. %. In this study another critical concentration φ P P P l c ≈ 7 wt. % for DLPC and φ P P P l c ≈ 9 wt. % for S100 stabilized dispersions, respectively, has been observed. φ P P P l c describes the transition from a phase of randomly oriented stacked lamellae and remaining non-assembled individual platelets to a phase in which the stacks and non-assembled platelets exhibit an overall preferred orientation. A careful analysis of the experimental data indicates that for concentrations above φ P P P l c the stacked lamellae start to coalesce to rather small liquid crystalline domains of nematically ordered stacks. These liquid crystalline domains can be individually very differently oriented but possess an overall preferred orientation over macroscopic length scales which becomes successively more expressed when further increasing φ PPP . The lower critical concentration for the formation of liquid crystalline domains of the DLPC-stabilized suspension compared to φ P P P l c of the S100-stabilized suspension can be explained by a larger aspect ratio of the corresponding tripalmitin platelets. A geometrical model based on the excluded volumes of individual platelets and stacked lamellae has been developed and successfully applied to reproduce the critical volume fractions for both, the onset of stack formation and the appearance of the liquid crystalline phase.

The motion of phospholipids has previously been studied on many time scales due to the significance for living cells and technological applications. The motions on a pico- to nanosecond time scale were determined by quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) to be much faster than the ones on the microsecond scale covered by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). This was explained by assuming that the molecules rattle fast in a cage of neighbors (observed with QENS) from which they escape once in a while; this escape was then the primary step of the slower diffusion measured by FRAP. However, nanosecond MD simulation studies could not observe any escape events; recent findings even suggested that the long-range motion in phospholipid membranes on short time scales is not diffusive but has flow-like characteristics. To check this novel view, we have repeated the QENS experiments with today's significantly improved instrumentation. By using the advantage of QENS that allows tuning of the observation time in the pico- to nanosecond range, it was possible to study the evolution of motions in this time frame. Localized motions, e.g., of the head and tail groups, appear separated from the long-range motion and do not obfuscate the analysis as they do in a mean squared displacement plot. The results for the long-range motion are indeed compatible with flow patterns, whereas the localized motions can account for the fast motions interpreted as motions in a cage before. Hereby, we give experimental evidence for a completely different mechanism of long-range motion on short time scales in phospholipid membranes.

The two binary clathrates with vacancies (□) Rb8Sn44□2 and Cs8Sn44□2 have been examined using powder inelastic neutron scattering (INS). Rattling energies of Rb and Cs are found to be similar by both experiment and calculations, ℏωCs/ℏωRb|Exp.=0.98(1) and ℏωCs/ℏωRb|Calc.=1.0, despite the significant mass difference: mCs/mRb=1.6, which shows that guest-host interaction is non-negligible for the studied system. For Rb8Sn44□2, a low energy phonon mode is observed at ≈3.5 meV, below the phonon mode which in the literature is attributed to the guest atom. The 3.5 meV mode is interpreted to have significant spectral weight of Sn host atoms based on temperature dependence and comparison with published theoretical phonon calculations. The record of low thermal conductivity of the tin clathrates can be attributed to the host structure dynamics rather than the guest atom rattling.

The dynamics of the fully hydrated phospholipid dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) were studied on a time scale of about 60 picoseconds with quasielastic neutron scattering. Three types of samples were employed: multibilayers without solid support, single bilayers in vesicles, and monolayers in emulsions of perdeuterated hexadecane. The vesicles and emulsion droplets had diameters of about 130 nanometres; some of the emulsions also contained sodium glycocholate to enhance the stability. It could be shown that the mobility of the phospholipid molecules in the observed time regime increases from multibilayers over single bilayers to monolayers. Additionally, the high quality of the data of the multibilayer samples allows an evaluation of the molecular mechanism of the motions: while the interpretation in the frame of flow-like motions fits well at temperatures shortly above the main phase transition, the model of diffusive motions fits better at high temperatures of up to 80 °C.

We investigate the low-frequency enhancement of vibrational excitations ('boson peak') in niobium-phosphate glasses through the combination of inelastic neutron and polarization-resolved Raman scattering. The spectra of these glasses reveal an enhancement of the vibrational density of states and of the cross section for spontaneous Raman scattering in the frequency range below 150?cm ? 1. A recent theoretical model that is based on fluctuating elastic and elasto-optic (Pockels) constants provides a unified description of the measured neutron and Raman spectra, including the depolarization ratio.

Elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments were carried out on the heavy-fermion systems CeNi8.6Cu0.4Ge4 and CeNi8CuGe4 to study i) the influences of Ni/Cu substitution on the crystal field parameters and to identify ii) the driving forces of quantum criticality in CeNi9−xCuxGe4. The relevance of competing RKKY and Kondo interactions and changes of the crystal field parameters is discussed. The crystallographic site where the Ni replacement by copper atoms takes place is identified by neutron powder diffraction studies. Furthermore, quasi-elastic and inelastic neutron scattering studies provide detailed information regarding the Kondo properties and the changes of the crystal field parameters resulting from the Ni/Cu replacement. Hence, a reduction of the effective spin degeneracy of the crystal field ground state with increasing Cu concentration is identified as one important control parameter of quantum criticality in CeNi9−xCuxGe4. The results of these experiments are complemented by measurements of the thermopower.

Liquid germanium exhibits a change in the bonding character from being more covalent to more metallic while heating. We used quasielastic neutron scattering to measure the absolute value of self-diffusion coefficients in this liquid. Compared to other monoatomic liquids, such as liquid Ni or Ti, the self-diffusivity is an order faster near the melting temperature and shows a non-Arrhenius-like behavior. Above 1325 K, the activation energy for self-diffusion is low and obeys Stokes–Einstein relation. Even though the packing density of liquid germanium is less than that of simple metallic melts such as Pb or Sn, the temperature dependence of self-diffusivity does not exhibit D∝Tn(n≃2) form, which is observed for uncorrelated binary collisions of hard-spheres.

The water diffusion in four different, highly compacted clays [montmorillonite in the Na- and Ca-forms, illite in the Na- and Ca-forms, kaolinite, and pyrophyllite (bulk dry density rho(b)=1.85+/-0.05 gcm(3))] was studied at the atomic level by means of quasielastic neutron scattering. The experiments were performed on two time-of-flight spectrometers and at three different energy resolutions [FOCUS at SINQ, PSI (3.65 and 5.75 A), and TOFTOF at FRM II (10 A)] for reliable data analysis and at temperatures between 27 and 95 degrees C. Two different jump diffusion models were used to describe the translational motion. Both models describe the data equally well and give the following ranking of diffusion coefficients: Na-montmorilloniteor=Ca-montmorilloniteCa-illiteNa-illitewateror=pyrophylliteor=kaolinite. Uncharged clays had slightly larger diffusion coefficients than that of bulk water due to their hydrophobic surfaces. The time between jumps, tau(t), follows the sequence: Ca-montmorilloniteor=Na-montmorilloniteCa-illiteNa-illiteor=kaolinitepyrophylliteor=water, in both jump diffusion models. For clays with a permanent layer charge (montmorillonite and illite) a reduction in the water content by a factor of 2 resulted in a decrease in the self-diffusion coefficients and an increase in the time between jumps as compared to the full saturation. The uncharged clay kaolinite exhibited no change in the water mobility between the two hydration states. The rotational relaxation time of water was affected by the charged clay surfaces, especially in the case of montmorillonite; the uncharged clays presented a waterlike behavior. The activation energies for translational diffusion were calculated from the Arrhenius law, which adequately describes the systems in the studied temperature range. Na- and Ca-montmorillonite (approximately 11-12 kJmol), Na-illite (approximately 13 kJmol), kaolinite and pyrophyllite (approximately 14 kJmol), and Ca-illite (approximately 15 kJmol) all had lower activation energies than bulk water (approximately 17 kJmol in this study). This may originate from the reduced number and strength of the H-bonds between water and the clay surfaces, or ions, as compared to those in bulk water. Our comparative study suggests that the compensating cations in swelling clays have only a minor effect on the water diffusion rates at these high densities, whereas these cations influence the water motion in non-swelling clays.

A systematic time-of-flight quasielastic neutron scattering (TOF-QENS) study on diffusion of n-alkanes in a melt is presented for the first time. As another example of a medium-chain molecule, coenzyme Q(10) is investigated in the same way. The data were evaluated both in the frequency and in the time domain. TOF-QENS data can be satisfactorily described by different models, and it turned out that the determined diffusion coefficients are largely independent of the applied model. The derived diffusion coefficients are compared with values measured by pulsed-field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR). With increasing chain length, an increasing difference between the TOF-QENS diffusion coefficient and the PFG-NMR diffusion coefficient is observed. This discrepancy in the diffusion coefficients is most likely due to a change of the diffusion mechanism on a nanometer length scale for molecules of medium-chain length.

The relation between static structure and dynamics as measured through the diffusion coefficients in viscous multicomponent metallic melts is elucidated by the example of the binary alloy Zr64Ni36, by a combination of neutron-scattering experiments and mode-coupling theory of the glass transition. Comparison with a hard-sphere mixture shows that the relation between the different self diffusion coefficients strongly depends on chemical short-range ordering. For the Zr-Ni example, the theory predicts both diffusivities to be practically identical. The kinetics of concentration fluctuations is dramatically slower than that of self-diffusion, but the overall interdiffusion coefficient is equally large or larger due to a purely thermodynamic prefactor. This result is a general feature for non-demixing dense melts, irrespective of chemical short-range order.

The dynamics of the ammonium ion in ammonium persulfate is studied by inelastic neutron scattering at energy transfers between 0.7 µeV and about 100 meV. NH4+ librational modes are clearly split into four energetically different bands, in agreement with the absence of symmetry at the ammonium site. One strong, one medium and two weak hydrogen bonds from the NH4 ion to neighboring oxygens lead to this unusual potential shape with one dominating overlap matrix elements hi. Therefore the ammonium dynamics seen by neutron tunneling spectroscopy looks like a rotation about a single axis, that of the strongest hydrogen bond. Quasi-elastic scattering up to T = 100 K is dominated by jumps about this specific axis, too. Jumps about the second weak axis modify the quasi-elastic scattering at higher temperature. Results of a previous nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quadrupole resonance experiment are consistently interpreted to show the dynamics around the remaining two strong axes. The reduced isotope effect of the lowest librational band is due to a special shape of the potential and not to changes of the hydrogen bond with deuteration.

Methyl rotational tunneling, quasielastic spectra and phonon densities of states measured with neutrons at energy transfers from 35 µeV to 40 meV are used to characterize the adsorption sites and potentials of CH3Cl guest molecules in the two kinds of cages of cubic I methyl chloride hydrate. The model of adsorption to hydrogen bonds of the ice cage explains the broad tunnel spectrum as a superposition of four bands. Up to a temperature T~80 K the quasielastic scattering is influenced by quantum motion. Only above T~80 K does the effective linewidth follow an Arrhenius behavior with an average activation energy. Rotational potentials contain a significant sixfold component supporting the proposed adsorption to hydrogen bonds with their mirror symmetry. Positional disorder of protons in the hydrogen bonds of the host ice lattice leads to potential distributions of large relative widths .

We investigated the dynamics of confined water in different hydrated cement pastes with minimized contributions of capillary water. It was found that the water motions are extremely reduced compared to those of bulk water. The onset of water mobility, which was modified by the local environment, was investigated with elastic temperature scans using the high-resolution neutron backscattering instrument SPHERES. Using a Cauchy-Lorenz distribution, the quasi-elastic signal observed in the spectra obtained by the backscattering spectrometer was analyzed, leading to the identification of rotational motions with relaxation times of 0.3 ns. Additionally, neutron spin echo (NSE) spectroscopy was used to measure the water diffusion over the local network of pores. The motions observed in the NSE time scale were characterized by diffusion constants ranging from 0.6 to 1.1 × 10-9 m2 s-1 most likely related to water molecules removed from the interface. In summary, our results indicate that the local diffusion observed in the gel pores of hardened cement pastes is on the order of that found in deeply supercooled water. Finally, the importance of the magnetic properties of cement pastes were discussed in relation to the observation of a quasi-elastic signal on the dried sample spectra measured using the time-of-flight spectrometer.

The transition‐metal dichalcogenide HfS2 is a promising alternative semiconductor with adequate band gap and high carrier mobility. However, a controllable growth of continuous HfS2 films with selectivity for specific surfaces at a low temperature on a large scale has not been demonstrated yet. Herein, HfS2 films are grown at 100 °C by atomic layer deposition (ALD) based on the precursors tetrakis(dimethylamido)hafnium and H2S. In situ vibrational spectroscopy allows for the definition of the temperature range over which (Me2N)4Hf chemisorbs as one monolayer. In that range, sequential exposures of the solid surface with (Me2N)4Hf and H2S result in self‐limiting reactions that yield alternating surface termination with dimethylamide and thiol. Repeating the cycle grows smooth, continuous, stoichiometric films of thicknesses adjustable from angstroms to >100 nm, as demonstrated by spectroscopic ellipsometry, XRR, AFM, UV–vis and Raman spectroscopy, XPS, and TEM. The well‐defined surface chemistry enables one to deposit HfS2 selectively using, for example, patterns generated in molecular self‐assembled monolayers. This novel ALD reaction combines several attractive features necessary for integrating HfS2 into devices.