Neutron scattering molecular dynamics

Adsorbent Adsorbate T/K PFG NMR Neutron scattering Molecular dynamics Sorption techniques... 

For some examples see (a) Bako, I. Radnai, T Belisant Funel, M. C. Investigation of structure of liquid 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol neutron diffraction, molecular dynamics, and ab initio quantum chemical study, J. Chem. Phys. 2004, 121, 12472-12480 (b) Cabaco, I. Danten, Y. Besnard, M. Guissani, Y. Guillot, B. Neutron diffraction and molecular dynamics study of liquid benzene and its fluorinated derivatives as a function of temperature, J. Phys. Chem. 1997, BlOl, 6977-6987. This last paper has a clear description of the derivation of pair correlation functions from experimental scattered intensities from liquids. 

Radiation probes such as neutrons, x-rays and visible light are used to see the structure of physical systems tlirough elastic scattering experunents. Inelastic scattering experiments measure both the structural and dynamical correlations that exist in a physical system. For a system which is in thennodynamic equilibrium, the molecular dynamics create spatio-temporal correlations which are the manifestation of themial fluctuations around the equilibrium state. For a condensed phase system, dynamical correlations are intimately linked to its structure. For systems in equilibrium, linear response tiieory is an appropriate framework to use to inquire on the spatio-temporal correlations resulting from thennodynamic fluctuations. Appropriate response and correlation functions emerge naturally in this framework, and the role of theory is to understand these correlation fiinctions from first principles. This is the subject of section A3.3.2. 

Vibrational spectroscopy provides detailed infonnation on both structure and dynamics of molecular species. Infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopy are the most connnonly used methods, and will be covered in detail in this chapter. There exist other methods to obtain vibrational spectra, but those are somewhat more specialized and used less often. They are discussed in other chapters, and include inelastic neutron scattering (INS), helium atom scattering, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), photoelectron spectroscopy, among others. 

Complementary to other methods that constimte a basis for the investigation of molecular dynamics (Raman scattering, infrared absorption, and neutron scattering), NIS is a site- and isotope-selective technique. It yields the partial density of vibrational states (PDOS). The word partial refers to the selection of molecular vibrations in which the Mossbauer isotope takes part. The first NIS measurements were performed in 1995 to constitute the method and to investigate the PDOS of... 

The prerequisite for an experimental test of a molecular model by quasi-elastic neutron scattering is the calculation of the dynamic structure factors resulting from it. As outlined in Section 2 two different correlation functions may be determined by means of neutron scattering. In the case of coherent scattering, all partial waves emanating from different scattering centers are capable of interference the Fourier transform of the pair-correlation function is measured Eq. (4a). In contrast, incoherent scattering, where the interferences from partial waves of different scatterers are destructive, measures the self-correlation function [Eq. (4b)]. 

How can one hope to extract the contributions of the different normal modes from the relaxation behavior of the dynamic structure factor The capability of neutron scattering to directly observe molecular motions on their natural time and length scale enables the determination of the mode contributions to the relaxation of S(Q, t). Different relaxation modes influence the scattering function in different Q-ranges. Since the dynamic structure factor is not simply broken down into a sum or product of more contributions, the Q-dependence is not easy to represent. In order to make the effects more transparent, we consider the maximum possible contribution of a given mode p to the relaxation of the dynamic structure factor. This maximum contribution is reached when the correlator in Eq. (32) has fallen to zero. For simplicity, we retain all the other relaxation modes = 1 for s p. 

Supplementary to other vibrational spectroscopies, inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectroscopy is a very useful technique for studying organic molecules as it is extremely sensitive to the vibrations of hydrogen atoms. INS spectroscopy has been used to analyze the molecular dynamics of the energetic compound ANTA 5 <2005CPL(403)329>. 

There has been extensive effort in recent years to use coordinated experimental and simulation studies of polymer melts to better understand the connection between polymer motion and conformational dynamics. Although no experimental method directly measures conformational dynamics, several experimental probes of molecular motion are spatially local or are sensitive to local motions in polymers. Coordinated simulation and experimental studies of local motion in polymers have been conducted for dielectric relaxation,152-158 dynamic neutron scattering,157,159-164 and NMR spin-lattice relaxation.17,152,165-168 A particularly important outcome of these studies is the improved understanding of the relationship between the probed motions of the polymer chains and the underlying conformational dynamics that leads to observed motions. In the following discussion, we will focus on the... 

Chem. Phys., 107, 4751 (1997). Local Dynamics in a Long-Chain Alkane Melt from Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Neutron Scattering Experiments. 

Phys. Condens. Matter, 15, S1127 (2003). Self-Motion and the a-Relaxation in Glass-Forming Polymers. Molecular Dynamic Simulation and Quasielastic Neutron Scattering Results in Polyisoprene. 

Macromolecules, 35, 7110 (2002). Segmental Dynamics of Atactic Polypropylene as Revealed by Molecular Simulations and Quasielastic Neutron Scattering. 

In all studies involving methods based on absorption or scattering of light, X rays, or neutrons, the characteristic time scales on which radiation interacts with the substance are many orders of magnitude shorter than those of atomic motions. Therefore, it is not the motions themselves but the disordering which arises due to molecular dynamics that should be investigated. 

The structure of the adsorbed ion coordination shell is determined by the competition between the water-ion and the metal-ion interactions, and by the constraints imposed on the water by the metal surface. This structure can be characterized by water-ion radial distribution functions and water-ion orientational probability distribution functions. Much is known about this structure from X-ray and neutron scattering measurements performed in bulk solutions, and these are generally in agreement with computer simulations. The goal of molecular dynamics simulations of ions at the metal/water interface has been to examine to what degree the structure of the ion solvation shell is modified at the interface. 

The above experimental results largely relate to spectroscopic techniques, which do not give direct information about the spatial scale of the molecular motions. The size of the spatial heterogeneities is estimated by indirect methods such as sensitivity of the dynamics to the probe size or from the differences between translational and rotational diffusion coefficients (rotation-translation paradox). It might be expected that the additional spatial information provided by neutron scattering could help to discriminate between the two scenarios proposed. 

In the Gaussian approximation (Eq. 4.12) the mean squared displacement is given by (r (t))=3/[2a(t)], and a2(t) is zero of course. In the light of the above results obtained by neutron scattering (summarized in Eq. 4.14), the values of the non-Gaussian parameter for this process should be very small. However, this result is in apparent contradiction to recent molecular dynamics (MD)... 

The results given by the interpolation model have been tested by comparing with neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics studies on liquid argon. 

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