A computational study of the cooperative effect of a small four-atom Co oxide cluster supported on the TiO2 anatase (100) surface in the electrochemical water splitting reaction is presented. The results have been obtained including explicit solvent water molecules by means of Car-Parrinello MD simulations. Reaction steps in the catalytic cycle determined involve the formation of TiO2 surface h...

We derive a consistent approach for predicting the solvation free energies of charged solutes in the presence of implicit and explicit solvents. We find that some published methodologies make systematic errors in the computed free energies because of the incorrect accounting of the standard state corrections for water molecules or water clusters present in the thermodynamic cycle. This problem ...

Nanopumps conducting fluids through nanochannels have attracted considerable interest for their potential applications in nanofiltration, water desalination and drug delivery. Here, we demonstrate by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations that a nano screw pump is designed with helical nanowires embedded in a nanochannel, which can be used to drive unidirectional water flow. Such helical nanowires...

Heme metabolism by heme oxygenase (HO) is investigated with quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) calculations. A mechanism assisted by water is proposed: (1) an iron-oxo species and a water molecule are generated by the heterolytic cleavage of the O-O bond of an iron-hydroperoxo species in a similar way to P450-mediated reactions, (2) a hydrogen atom abstraction by the iron-oxo speci...

When a sessile droplet evaporates, coffee-ring effect drives the suspended particulate matters to the droplet edge, eventually forming a ring-shaped deposition. Because it causes a non-uniform distribution of solid contents, which is undesired in many applications, attempts have been made to eliminate the coffee-ring effect. Recent reports indicated that the coffee-ring effect can be suppressed...

PURPOSE Modifiable risk factors for bladder cancer have been identified, ie tobacco and chemical exposure. We identified high risk bladder cancer areas and risk factors associated with bladder cancer clusters in Florida using individual and area based data. MATERIALS AND METHODS Spatial modeling was applied to 23,266 early and advanced bladder cancer cases diagnosed between 1998 and 2002 in F...

A new tellurium-substituted Lindqvist-type polyoxoniobate [H2TeNb5O19](5-) was synthesized as a tetramethylammonium salt. When irradiated with a Xe lamp, a water-methanol solution of this cluster showed exceptionally high H2-evolution activity suggesting cocatalysis by the hexaniobate cluster and metallic tellurium, both of which are formed as photodecomposition products.

Absolute attachment cross sections of single molecules M (M = water, ethanol, or methanol) onto positively charged mass-selected clusters XnH(+) (X = water, ethanol, or methanol) were measured for cluster sizes ranging from tens to hundreds of molecules and center-of-mass collision energies varying from 0.1 to ∼1 eV. The attachment cross sections, which converge as expected toward geometrical c...

The oxidation of water to dioxygen is catalyzed within photosystem II (PSII) by a Mn(4)Ca cluster, the structure of which remains elusive. Polarized extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements on PSII single crystals constrain the Mn(4)Ca cluster geometry to a set of three similar high-resolution structures. Combining polarized EXAFS and x-ray diffraction data, the cluster was...

We carry out molecular Monte Carlo simulations of clusters in an imperfect vapor. We show that down to very small cluster sizes, classical nucleation theory built on the liquid drop model can be used very accurately to describe the work required to add a monomer to the cluster. However, the error made in modeling the smallest of clusters as liquid drops results in an erroneous absolute value fo...