Learning, surface approach

In Chapter 5 we learned that, in water, most surfaces bear an electric charge. If two such surfaces approach each other and the electric double layers overlap, an electrostatic double-layer force arises. This electrostatic double-layer force is important in many natural phenomena and technical applications. It for example stabilizes dispersions.7... 

Table Z1 A surface approach to learning versus a deep approach to learning...

Rhem, J. (Ed.). (1995). Deep/surface approaches to learning An introduction. National Teaching and Learning Forum, 5(1) Issue theme. 

The previous sections have set the stage for describing the essentials of what happens when a molecule approaches the surface of a metal. The most important features of chemisorption are well captured by the Newns-Anderson model [D.M. Newns, Phys. Reu. 178 (1969) 1123 P.W. Anderson, Phys. Rev. 124 (1961) 41], which we describe in Section 6.4.1. Readers who are not particularly fond of quantum mechanics and its somewhat involved use of mathematics, but merely want to learn the outcome of this model, may skip this section and go directly to Section 6.4.2, where we present a summary in qualitative terms. The same readers may also want to consult Roald Hoffmann s Solids and Surfaces [(1988), VCH, Weinheim], abook we warmly recommend. 

One difficulty with many synthetic preparations of semiconductor NCs that complicates any interpretation of NMR results is the inevitable distribution of sizes (and exact shapes or surface morphologies). Therefore attempts to make semiconductors as a sort of molecular cluster having a well-defined stoichiometry are of interest to learn potentially about size-dependent NMR parameters and other properties. One approach is to confine the semiconductor inside a template, for instance the cuboctahedral cages of the sodalite framework or other zeolite structures, which have been characterized by multinuclear NMR methods [345-347], including the mesoporous channel material MCM-41 [341, 348]. 

In the previous chapters, you have learned how to use DFT calculations to optimize the structures of molecules, bulk solids, and surfaces. In many ways these calculations are very satisfying since they can predict the properties of a wide variety of interesting materials. But everything you have seen so far also substantiates a common criticism that is directed toward DFT calculations namely that it is a zero temperature approach. What is meant by this is that the calculations tell us about the properties of a material in which the atoms are localized at equilibrium or minimum energy positions. In classical mechanics, this corresponds to a description of a material at 0 K. The implication of this criticism is that it may be interesting to know about how materials would appear at 0 K, but real life happens at finite temperatures. 

The global thermodynamic approach used in the above sections is insensitive to details at the atomic level and can only yield a gross characterization of the surface. Properties such as the specific surface area and the presence or absence of pores can be determined using the above approach since only the average surface —not atomic details —is involved. The existence of a distribution of surface energy sites can also be inferred from adsorption data, but the method falls short when it comes to specifics about this distribution. Observations on an atomic scale are needed to learn more about the details of the surface structure. Such observations comprise the subject matter of the last two sections of the chapter. 

Fully as expected from the inspection of molecular models, the generation of the oxetane ring has the effect of heightening the structural curvature in compounds such as 85 and 86. Reagent approach from the exterior should materialize under kinetically controlled conditions. These features are reflected in the catalytic hydrogenation of 86, which results in saturation of the double bond from the (3 surface along with reductive debromination to furnish 87. The lesson learned here is that the oxetane ring should be released or not formed at all if an opportunity to approach C9 from the a direction has any chance to take place. 

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