Laboratory formation of large molecules in the gas phase

We report the experimental study on the formation process of large molecules (e.g. a family group of molecular clusters and graphene) in the gas phase. The experiment was carried out using a quadrupole ion trap in combination with time-of-flight mass spectrometry. As the initial molecular precursor, dicoronylene (DC, C48H20)/anthracene (C14H10) cluster cations, the results show that large PAH cluster cations (e.g., (C14H10)C48Hn+, n = [1–19] and (C14H10)C62Hm+, m = [1–25]) and PAH-graphene cluster cations (e.g., (C14H10)nC48+, n = 0, 1, 2, 3 and (C14H10)mC62+, m = 0, 1, 2) are formed by gas-phase condensation under laser irradiation conditions. We infer that these results present in here provide a formation route for interstellar large molecules under the influence of a strong radiation field in the ISM. The relevance of newly formed species to the nanometer-sized dust grain in space is briefly discussed.

The Hydrogen Passivated Graphene Cluster and its Stability - First Principle DFT (B3LYP) Levels of Approximation with the Basis Set 3-21G

First-principles DFT (B3LYP) levels of calculations with the basis set 3-21G have been carried out in order to study the geometric stability and electronic properties of hydrogen passivated graphene (H-graphene) clusters(CN) (where N = 6, 10, 13, 16, 22, 24, 27, 30, 35, 37, 40, 42, 45, 47, 48, 50, 52, 54, 70 and 96) and perform the DOS spectrum on H-graphene (C16H10, C24H12, C30H14, C48H18, C70H22 and C96H24) using Mulliken population analysis by the Gaussian 03 W set of programs. The variations of ground state energy of graphene clusters are observed on sizes and corresponding number of carbon atoms. The binding energy per carbon atom is the function of carbon atoms for the number of carbon atoms less than 30 and saturated at carbon’s number 30 and more in the DFT (B3LYP) levels of approximation with the basis set 3-21G. The binding energy per carbon atom of a pure graphene sheet C32 is 8.03 eV/atom in the DFT (B3LYP) level of approximation with the choice of the basis set 3-21G, which is acceptable with previous reported data 7.91 eV/atom. The HOMO-LUMO gap in NBO is studied for some H-grapheneclustors C16H10, C24H12, C30H14, C48H18, C70H22 and C96H24.

First-principles study of the stability of graphene and adsorption of halogen atoms (F, Cl and Br) on hydrogen passivated graphene

First-principles calculations based on Hartree–Fock (HF) and density functional theory (DFT) levels of approximation have been carried out in order to study the stability of graphene clusters as a function of number of carbon atoms (N). The variation of calculated binding energy per carbon atom with corresponding number of carbon atoms (N) in graphene cluster almost saturates after the cluster size consisting of 96 carbon atoms, with binding energy per carbon atom 8.24 eV/atom. Adsorption of halogen atoms, ( F , Cl and Br ), on hydrogen passivated graphene ( H -graphene) was also studied systematically through first-principles DFT calculations by taking five different H -graphene clusters. The calculations showed that the most stable adsorption site for halogen adatoms on H -graphene being T site with binding energy 2.41 eV ( F ), 1.48 eV ( Cl ) and 1.19 eV ( Br ) on the H -graphene cluster consisting 96 carbon atoms. Moreover, on increasing the size of H -graphene cluster, the binding energy of halogen adatoms found to be increasing. The distances of adatom from the nearest carbon atom of H -graphene sheet were 1.47 Å ( F ), 2.71 Å ( Cl ) and 3.01 Å ( Br ), however, the adatom heights from the H -graphene basal plane were 2.22 Å ( F ), 2.90 Å ( Cl ), and 3.19 Å ( Br ). The bonding of halogen adatoms on H -graphene were through the charge transfer; 0.30 | e | ( F ), 0.37 | e | ( Cl ) and 0.19 | e | ( Br ), from H -graphene to adatoms and includes the negligible local distortion in the underlying planner H -graphene. Charge redistribution upon adsorption induces significant dipole moments 2.16 D ( F ), 4.81 D ( Cl ) and 3.08 D ( Br ) on H -graphene. The calculated HOMO–LUMO energy gap of adatom- H -graphene and H -graphene does not differ significantly up to the cluster size N = 30, however, beyond N = 30 adsorption of halogen adatoms significantly opens the HOMO–LUMO energy gap on H -graphene and the opening of HOMO–LUMO energy gap also saturates from N = 96. Correlation of computed HOMO–LUMO energy gap and corresponding binding energy of adatom- H -graphene systems have been also studied.