Surface solute interaction

This chapter describes highly important phenomena of Li and Li-ion batteries, namely, basic electrode-solution interactions, surface film formation, passivation, and the correlation among 3D structure, morphology, surface chemistry, electronic properties, and electrochemical behavior of anodes and cathodes for Li-ion batteries. It was found that surface films are formed in both Li-C anodes and Li MOy cathodes, control their stabihty, influence their kinetics, and have a significant impact on the degree of capacity fading upon cycling. The safety features of the electrodes, (and, in fact, the batteries) at elevated temperatures are also determined by the surface films that cover them. 

For dilute solutions, solute-solute interactions are unimportant (i.e., Henry s law will hold), and the variation of surface tension with concentration will be linear (at least for nonelectrolytes). Thus... 

Electrostatic Interaction. Similarly charged particles repel one another. The charges on a particle surface may be due to hydrolysis of surface groups or adsorption of ions from solution. The surface charge density can be converted to an effective surface potential, /, when the potential is <30 mV, using the foUowing equation, where -Np represents the Faraday constant and Ai the gas law constant. 

When the silica surface is in contact with a solvent, the surface is covered with a layer of the solvent molecules. If the mobile phase consists of a mixture of solvents, the solvents compete for the surface and it is partly covered by one solvent and partly by the other. Thus, any solute interacting with the stationary phase may well be presented with two, quite different types of surface with which to interact. The probability that a solute molecule will interact with one particular type of surface will be statistically controlled by the proportion of the total surface area that is covered by that particular solvent. 

From the point of view of solute interaction with the structure of the surface, it is now very complex indeed. In contrast to the less polar or dispersive solvents, the character of the interactive surface will be modified dramatically as the concentration of the polar solvent ranges from 0 to l%w/v. However, above l%w/v, the surface will be modified more subtly, allowing a more controlled adjustment of the interactive nature of the surface It would appear that multi-layer adsorption would also be feasible. For example, the second layer of ethyl acetate might have an absorbed layer of the dispersive solvent n-heptane on it. However, any subsequent solvent layers that may be generated will be situated further and further from the silica surface and are likely to be very weakly held and sparse in nature. Under such circumstances their presence, if in fact real, may have little impact on solute retention. 

Figure 11. The Different Types of Solute Interaction that can Occur on a Silica Surface Containing a Solvent Bi-layer...

Where there are multi-layers of solvent, the most polar is the solvent that interacts directly with the silica surface and, consequently, constitutes part of the first layer the second solvent covering the remainder of the surface. Depending on the concentration of the polar solvent, the next layer may be a second layer of the same polar solvent as in the case of ethyl acetate. If, however, the quantity of polar solvent is limited, then the second layer might consist of the less polar component of the solvent mixture. If the mobile phase consists of a ternary mixture of solvents, then the nature of the surface and the solute interactions with the surface can become very complex indeed. In general, the stronger the forces between the solute and the stationary phase itself, the more likely it is to interact by displacement even to the extent of displacing both layers of solvent (one of the alternative processes that is not depicted in Figure 11). Solutes that exhibit weaker forces with the stationary phase are more likely to interact with the surface by sorption. 

This is an oversimplified treatment of the concentration effect that can occur on a thin layer plate when using mixed solvents. Nevertheless, despite the complex nature of the surface that is considered, the treatment is sufficiently representative to disclose that a concentration effect does, indeed, take place. The concentration effect arises from the frontal analysis of the mobile phase which not only provides unique and complex modes of solute interaction and, thus, enhanced selectivity, but also causes the solutes to be concentrated as they pass along the TLC plate. This concentration process will oppose the dilution that results from band dispersion and thus, provides greater sensitivity to the spots close to the solvent front. This concealed concentration process, often not recognized, is another property of TLC development that helps make it so practical and generally useful and often provides unexpected sensitivities. 

In the previous chapter we considered a rather simple solvent model, treating each solvent molecule as a Langevin-type dipole. Although this model represents the key solvent effects, it is important to examine more realistic models that include explicitly all the solvent atoms. In principle, we should adopt a model where both the solvent and the solute atoms are treated quantum mechanically. Such a model, however, is entirely impractical for studying large molecules in solution. Furthermore, we are interested here in the effect of the solvent on the solute potential surface and not in quantum mechanical effects of the pure solvent. Fortunately, the contributions to the Born-Oppenheimer potential surface that describe the solvent-solvent and solute-solvent interactions can be approximated by some type of analytical potential functions (rather than by the actual solution of the Schrodinger equation for the entire solute-solvent system). For example, the simplest way to describe the potential surface of a collection of water molecules is to represent it as a sum of two-body interactions (the interac-... 

With the gas-phase potential surface we can obtain the solution Hamiltonians by eq. (3.23), adding the solvent-solute interaction to the classical part of the diagonal EVB matrix elements. That is, we use... 

Solute Interactions with the Silica Gel Surface (Mobile Phase n-Heptane/Chloroform)... 

Transition metals such as iron can catalyze oxidation reactions in aqueous solution, which are known to cause modification of amino acid side chains and damage to polypeptide backbones (see Chapter 1, Section 1.1 Halliwell and Gutteridge, 1984 Kim et al., 1985 Tabor and Richardson, 1987). These reactions can oxidize thiols, create aldehydes and other carbonyls on certain amino acids, and even cleave peptide bonds. The purposeful use of metal-catalyzed oxidation in the study of protein interactions has been done to map interaction surfaces or identify which regions of biomolecules are in contact during specific affinity binding events. 

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