Lattice site

Face-centered cubic crystals of rare gases are a useful model system due to the simplicity of their interactions. Lattice sites are occupied by atoms interacting via a simple van der Waals potential with no orientation effects. The principal problem is to calculate the net energy of interaction across a plane, such as the one indicated by the dotted line in Fig. VII-4. In other words, as was the case with diamond, the surface energy at 0 K is essentially the excess potential energy of the molecules near the surface. 

Density functional theory from statistical mechanics is a means to describe the thermodynamics of the solid phase with information about the fluid [17-19]. In density functional theory, one makes an ansatz about the structure of the solid, usually describing the particle positions by Gaussian distributions around their lattice sites. The free... 

Knowing the lattice is usually not sufficient to reconstruct the crystal structure. A knowledge of the vectors (a, b, c) does not specify the positions of the atoms within the unit cell. The positions of the atoms withm the unit cell is given by a set of vectors i., = 1, 2, 3... u where n is the number of atoms in the unit cell. The set of vectors, x., is called the basis. For simple elemental structures, the unit cell may contain only one atom. The lattice sites in this case can be chosen to correspond to the atomic sites, and no basis exists. 

If adsorption occurs via a physisorbed precursor, then the sticking probability at low coverages will be enhanced due to the ability of the precursor to diflfiise and find a lattice site [30]. The details depend on parameters such as strength of the lateral interactions between the adsorbates and the relative rates of desorption and reaction of the precursor. In figure Al.7,8 an example of a plot of S versus 0 for precursor mediated adsorption is presented. 

An alternative fomuilation of the nearest-neighbour Ising model is to consider the number of up f T land down [i] spins, the numbers of nearest-neighbour pairs of spins IT 11- U fl- IT Hand their distribution over the lattice sites. Not all of the spin densities are independent since... 

Flence, on summing over the graphs, the only non-zero tenns are closed polygons with an even number of bonds at each site, i.e. s. must appear an even number of times at a lattice site in a graph that does not add up to zero on suimning over the spins on the sites. 

A fiirther step in coarse graining is accomplished by representing the amphiphiles not as chain molecules but as single site/bond entities on a lattice. The characteristic architecture of the amphiphile—the hydrophilic head and hydrophobic tail—is lost in this representation. Instead, the interaction between the different lattice sites, which represent the oil, the water and the amphiphile, have to be carefiilly constmcted in order to bring about the amphiphilic behaviour. 

As early as 1969, Wlieeler and Widom [73] fomuilated a simple lattice model to describe ternary mixtures. The bonds between lattice sites are conceived as particles. A bond between two positive spins corresponds to water, a bond between two negative spins corresponds to oil and a bond coimecting opposite spins is identified with an amphiphile. The contact between hydrophilic and hydrophobic units is made infinitely repulsive hence each lattice site is occupied by eitlier hydrophilic or hydrophobic units. These two states of a site are described by a spin variable s., which can take the values +1 and -1. Obviously, oil/water interfaces are always completely covered by amphiphilic molecules. The Hamiltonian of this Widom model takes the form... 

This method has been devised as an effective numerical teclmique of computational fluid dynamics. The basic variables are the time-dependent probability distributions f x, f) of a velocity class a on a lattice site x. This probability distribution is then updated in discrete time steps using a detenninistic local rule. A carefiil choice of the lattice and the set of velocity vectors minimizes the effects of lattice anisotropy. This scheme has recently been applied to study the fomiation of lamellar phases in amphiphilic systems [92, 93]. 

Figure C2.3.2. Two-dimensional radial lattice representation of micelle stmcture using the approach of Dill and Flory [6], Each lattice site is considered to be equal in volume to tire otliers. Reproduced by pennission from [6],...

In tire simple version of tire lattice representation of proteins tire polypeptide chain is modelled as a sequence of connected beads. The beads are confined to tire sites of a suitable lattice. Most of tire studies have used tire cubic lattice. To satisfy tire excluded volume condition only one bead is allowed to occupy a lattice site. If all tire beads are identical we have a homopolymer model the characteristics of which on lattices have been extensively studied. 

Materials that contain defects and impurities can exhibit some of the most scientifically interesting and economically important phenomena known. The nature of disorder in solids is a vast subject and so our discussion will necessarily be limited. The smallest degree of disorder that can be introduced into a perfect crystal is a point defect. Three common types of point defect are vacancies, interstitials and substitutionals. Vacancies form when an atom is missing from its expected lattice site. A common example is the Schottky defect, which is typically formed when one cation and one anion are removed from fhe bulk and placed on the surface. Schottky defects are common in the alkali halides. Interstitials are due to the presence of an atom in a location that is usually unoccupied. A... 

Examination of these and other results indicates that the value of a for a given adsorptive which needs to be used in order to arrive at a value of specific surface consistent with that from nitrogen adsorption, varies according to the nature of the adsorbent. The existence of these variations shows that the conventional picture, in which the value of a corresponds to a monolayer which is completely filled with adsorbate molecules in a liquidlike packing, is over-simplified. Two factors can upset the simple picture (a) there may be a tendency for adsorbed molecules to become localized on lattice sites, or on more active parts of the solid surface and (b) the process... 

A coprecipitated impurity in which the interfering ion occupies a lattice site in the precipitate. 

We assume that the mixture contains Ni solvent molecules, each of which occupies a single site in the lattice we propose to fill. The system also contains N2 polymer molecules, each of which occupies n lattice sites. The polymer molecule is thus defined to occupy a volume n times larger than the solvent molecules. Strictly speaking, this is the definition of n in the derivation which follows. We shall adopt the attitude that the repeat units in the polymer are equal to solvent molecules in volume, however, so a polymer of degree of... 

The logic that leads us to this last result also limits the applicability of the ensuing derivation. Applying the fraction of total lattice sites vacant to the immediate vicinity of the first segment makes the model descriptive of a relatively concentrated solution. This is somewhat novel in itself, since theories of solutions more commonly assume dilute conditions. More to the point, the model is unrealistic for dilute solutions where the site occupancy within the domain of a dissolved polymer coil is greater than that for the solution as a whole. We shall return to a model more appropriate for dilute solutions below. For now we continue with the case of the more concentrated solution, realizing... 

This result should be compared with Eq. (8.28) for the case of the ideal mixture. It is reassuring to note that for n = 1, Eq. (8.36) reduces to Eq. (8.28). Next let us consider whether a change of notation will clarify Eq. (8.36) still more. Recognizing that the solvent, the repeat unit, and the lattice site all have the same volume, we see that Ni/N is the volume fraction occupied by the solvent in the mixture and nN2/N is the volume fraction of the polymer. Letting be the volume fraction of component i, we see that Eq. (8.36) becomes... 

The lattice model that served as the basis for calculating ASj in the last section continues to characterize the Flory-Huggins theory in the development of an expression for AHj . Specifically, we are concerned with the change in enthalpy which occurs when one species is replaced by another in adjacent lattice sites. The situation can be represented in the notation of a chemical reaction ... 

Each lattice site is defined to have z nearest neighbors, and 0i and 02 > respectively, can be used to describe the fraction of sites which are occupied by solvent molecules and polymer segments. The following inventory of interactions can now be made for the mixture ... 

Since the solvent molecules, the polymer segments, and the lattice sites are all assumed to be equal in volume, reaction (8.A) impUes constant volume conditions. Under these conditions, AU is needed and what we have called Aw might be better viewed as the contribution to the internal energy of a pairwise interaction AUp jj., where the subscript reminds us that this is the contribution of a single pair formation by reaction A. 

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