Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Techn. Univ., Habil.-Schr.--Ilmenau, 1997.

Univ., Diss.--Regensburg, 1995.

Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2008

Zugl.: Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 2009

A novel biodegradable ammonia control material was developed from steam exploded corn cob and its adsorption capacity was studied by packed column and titration method. The packed column studies showed that the maximum absorption capacities of the raw corn cob (RCC) and the steam exploded corn cob (SECC) were 10.45 mg NHB3B/gRCC and 59.80 mg NHB3B/gSECC respectively. However, the titration of the water slurries with a NHB4BOH showed that the capacity of the SECC was 14.4 times that of RCC. The large difference between the packed column (SECC/RCC = 5.7) and the slurry titration (SECC/RCC = 14.4) was probably because: (1) the initial ammonia reaction products blocked the pores of the SECC and reduced diffusion into the pore structure; (2) the ammonia gas flow rates were too high and therefore the gas did not penetrate the pores; (3) the gas contact time was below the equilibrium value; and (4) since interior pore surface area is usually larger than the external surface area of a particle, it appears the low column SECC/RCC ratio is due to reactions on the SECC particle surface whereas the slurry result was a combination of both. Fourier Transform Infrared, FTIR spectroscopy was conducted on RCC, SECC, ammonia adsorbed on RCC and ammonia adsorbed on SECC in the range 4000–700 cmP-1P. The FTIR bands in the region between 1500 and 2000 cmPâ 1P showed a considerable difference between RCC and SECC. When SECC was treated with ammonia, the carboxylic functional group peak at 1700 cmP-1P was reduced and a new peak was observed at 1584 cmP-1P. The adsorption, desorption test and the heat of adsorption results suggested combined physisorption and chemisorption of ammonia on SECC but chemisorption was found to play an important role in ammonia removal. The BET specific surface area of RCC was 3.4 m2/g whilst that SECC was less than 1 m2/g. Although SECC had a low surface area compared with RCC its adsorption capacity was found to be greater than that of RCC meaning the adsorption process is chemically controlled. Also, the pore size distribution showed that RCC exhibited both macroporosity and mesoporosity whilst SECC showed only mesoporosity. It is interesting to note that upon steam exploding RCC, the macropores within RCC collapsed to form more mesopores in SECC. The high uptake of SECC was determined to be its small pore width compared to that RCC. Simultaneous Differential Scanning Calorimetry, DSC and Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer, TGA, was used to determine the heat of adsorption of ammonia on SECC. The heat of adsorption of ammonia on SECC was 33.00 kJ per mole of NHB3B. This study shows that SECC could be potentially used to remove NHB3B from various emission sources. / Master of Science

The exponential increase in the demands of world’s energy and the devastating effects of current fossil fuels based sources has forced us to reduce our dependence on the current sources as well as finding cleaner, cheaper and renewable alternates. Being abundant, efficient and renewable, hydrogen can be opted as the best possible replacement of the diminishing and harmful fossil fuels. But the transformation towards the hydrogen-based economy is hindered by the unavailability of suitable storage medium for hydrogen. First principles calculations based on density functional theory has been employed in this thesis to investigate the structures modelling and thermodynamics of various efficient materials capable of storing hydrogen under chemisorption and physisorption mechanisms. Thanks to their high storage capacity, abundance and low cost, metal hydride (MgH2) has been considered as promising choice for hydrogen storage. However, the biggest drawback is their strong binding with the absorbed hydrogen under chemisorption, which make them inappropriate for operation at ambient conditions. Different strategies have been applied to improve the thermodynamics including doping with light and transitions metals in different phases of MgH2 in bulk form.  Application of mechanical strain along with Al, Si and Ti doping on MgH2 (001) and (100) surfaces has also been found very useful in lowering the dehydrogenation energies that ultimately improve adsorption/desorption temperatures. Secondly, in this thesis, two-dimensional materials with high surface area have been studied for the adsorption of hydrogen in molecular form (H2) under physisorption. The main disadvantage of this kind of storage is that the adsorption of H2 with these nanostructures likes graphane, silicene, silicane, BN-sheets, BC3 sheets are low and demand operation at cryogenic conditions. To enhance the H2 binding and attain high storage capacity the above-mentioned nanostructures have been functionalized with light metals (alkali, alkaline) and polylithiated species  (OLi2, CLi3, CLi4). The stabilities of the designed functional materials for H2 storage have been verified by means of molecular dynamics simulations.

N2O chemisorption technique for copper dispersion determination was developed and optimized for accurate and reproducible results. With this technique, the bulk oxidation of pre-reduced catalyst can be prevented by N2O decomposition at low temperature (30oC). Only surface copper atoms are oxidized. The amount of freshly oxidized surface coppers is determined from H2-back-titration of fixed oxygen.The impact of temperature and time of exposure during oxidation was studied. Measurements made at higher temperature (60oC) resulted in overestimation of copper dispersion due to oxygen diffusion into the bulk and sub-layers. Much longer exposure time may also have an impact on copper dispersion estimation.For accurate results and good precision, it is recommended to work under mild conditions (isothermal oxidation at 30oC for 45 min.The developed method was successfully applied to fresh and spent catalyst. As expected, the copper dispersion for fresh catalyst was significantly higher than copper dispersion for spent catalyst.

In dieser Arbeit wurden zwei komplementäre Beugungsverfahren verwendet, um die geometrische Struktur von organischen Adsorbaten (NTCDA und verschiedenen Metall-Pcs) auf Ag(111) zu untersuchen: um die lateralen Strukturparameter zu messen wurde hochauflösende Beugung niederenergetischer Elektronen (SPALEED) verwendet. Die vertikalen Abstände der einzelnen atomaren Spezies von der Silberoberfläche wurden mit der Methode der Absorption in stehenden Röntgenwellenfeldern (XSW) bestimmt. Aus den Arbeiten von Kilian et al. [43, 42] ist bekannt, daß die relaxierte und komprimierte Monolage NTCDA/Ag(111) einen Ordnungs-Unordnungs-Phasenübergang beim Abkühlen besitzt. Dazu sollten zu Beginn dieser Arbeit stabile Parameter mithilfe von Kühlversuchen unter Beobachtung im LEED gefunden werden, um diesen Phasenübergang zu reproduzieren. Dies ist nicht gelungen. Es wurden aber die vertikalen Abstände der Kohlenstoff- und Sauerstoffatome der relaxierten Monolage zum Substrat mithilfe von XSW bestimmt. Diese bestätigen die Messungen von Stanzel et al. [88, 87], die aufgrund des geringen Abstandes auf Chemisorption schließen lassen. Darüberhinaus wurde die Methode von Stanzel et al. verfeinert, das Photoelektronensignal (O1s) und das Auger-Signal (OKLL) kohärent zu interpretieren. Dabei wurden sowohl die nichtdipolaren Parameter der Photoemission (O1s) als auch der Anteil der durch Sekundärelektronen induzierten Augerzerfälle (OKLL) berücksichtigt und iterativ angepasst. Im Fall von NTCDA ist es möglich, anhand der Peakstruktur der O1s-Photoelektronen die Anhydridsauerstoffe von den Carbonylsauerstoffen zu trennen. Diese wurden bei XSW als getrennte Detektionskanäle verwendet und zeigen für die relaxierte Monolagenstruktur von NTCDA/Ag(111) - ähnlich wie schon von Hauschild et al. für PTCDA/Ag(111) [29, 30] gemessen - daß die Carbonylsauerstoffe in den Ecken des NTCDA-Moleküls um ca. 0:10 näher am Substrat liegen als die Anhydridsauerstoffe in der Brückenposition. Solch detaillierten Messungen sind notwendig, um für die Vielzahl von verschiedenen theoretischen ab-initio Methoden und Näherungsrechnungen ein Maß für deren Genauigkeit bereitzustellen. Bei den relativ großen Einheitszellenund der deshalb hohen Anzahl von Elektronen im organischen Molekül und den darunterliegenden Silberatomen haben diese Methoden noch Schwierigkeiten in endlicher Zeit akkurate Ergebnisse zu liefern. Der Hauptteil der Arbeit beschäftigte sich mit der geometrischen Struktur von Metall-Phthalocyaninen auf Ag(111). Das Phasendiagramm der Submonolagenstrukturen von SnPc/Ag(111) besteht im wesentlichen aus drei Bereichen in Abhängigkeit der Bedeckung und der Temepratur: Bei Raumtemperatur liegt bei niedrigen Bedeckungen unterhalb von ca. 0.9ML eine gasförmige Phase vor. Zwischen 0.9ML und 1 ML treten inkommensurable Strukturen auf, deren geometrische Parameter mit der Bedeckung variieren. Bei beiden Phasen nimmt der intermolekulare Abstand kontinuierlich mit der Bedeckung ab. Zumindest bei den inkommensurablen Phasen ist das ein klarer Beweis für eine Repulsion zwischen den Molekülen. Bei tiefen Temperaturen (<45°C) gibt es in einem mittleren Bedeckungsbereich (0.5ML - 0.92ML) eine kommensurable Überstruktur mit zwei Molekülen pro Einheitszelle. Es ist sogar möglich, von der inkommensurablen Phase (0.9ML...0.92ML) durch Temperaturabsenkung zu dieser etwas dichter gepackten kommensurablen Phase zu gelangen - die Repulsion lässt sich also nur mit Hilfe einer Temperaturänderung in eine Attraktion zwischen den Molekülen umschalten. Aufgrund der Abstände der verschiedenen Spezies zum Silbersubstrat konnte die Orientierung der Moleküle zum Substrat in den verschiedenen Phasen gemessen werden. Sie deuten auf eine chemisorptive Anbindung der Moleküle. Interessanterweise liegen die Moleküle in der Monolage alle mit dem Sn-Atom zum Substrat, während das Sn-Atom in der kommensurablen Tieftemperaturphase alternierend zum Substrat hinund wegzeigt. Diese Messungen erlauben eine Begründung der Attraktion und Repulsion zwischen den Molekülen auf Basis eines Donations-Rückdonationsmodells der Bindung der Moleküle an das Substrat. Sie werden mit den Ergebnissen von CuPc/Ag(111) von Ingo Kröger verglichen [46]. Schließlich werden noch erste Messungen an TiOPc vorgestellt. Die Datenlage bei TiOPc ist noch weniger dicht, es zeigt aber ein ähnliches Verhalten. Der augenfälligste Unterschied zu SnPc ist wohl die stabile Bi-Lage im Fall des TiOPc/Ag(111), die sich nicht durch Tempern vollständig ablösen lässt - im Gegensatz zu SnPc/Ag(111). Diese ersten geometrischen Messungen stimulierten neben weiteren SPALEED und XSW Messungen [46, 85] eine Reihe weiterer Untersuchungen in der Gruppe wie UPS, Austrittsarbeitsänderungen und detaillierte XPS-Messungen an den Rumpfelektronen, die das Donations-Rückdonationsmodell und die Orientierung der Moleküle bestätigen [108, 71]. / In order to study the geometry of organic Adsorbates (NTCDA and different Metal-Pcs) on Ag(111) two complementary methods were used: the lateral structural parameters were explored via high resolution low energy electron diffraction (SPALEED), the vertical distances of the different atomic species to the substrate were measured with the method of absorption profiles in x-ray standing waves (XSW). NTCDA/Ag(111) forms a relaxed and a compressed monolayer structure and shows an order-disorder phase transition upon cooling [43, 42]. In the beginning of this work the aim was to and stable parameters for this phase transition upon cooling with LEED, which was not succesful. In addition, the vertical distances of the carbon and oxygen atoms of the relaxed monolayer to the substrate was determined with XSW. These measurements confirmed the results of Stanzel et al. [88,87] which indicates a chemisorption because of the relatively small bonding lenghts. His method of using both, the photoelectron signal (O1s) and Auger signal (OKLL) for a coherent interpretation of the distances was refined. Therefore, the non-dipolar parameters of the photoemission (O1s) and the portion of secondary electron induced Auger (OKLL) were taken into account and iteratively adjusted. In the case of NTCDA/Ag(111) the O1s-peak structure allows to distinguish between anhydride and carbonyl oxygen signals. These signals have been used as independant absorption channels in the XSW-experiment and show that the carbonyl oxygens in the edge of the molecule are about 0.1Å closer to the substrate than the anhydride oxygen in the bridge position - a result similar to PTCDA/Ag(111) measured by Hauschild et al. [29, 30]. The big variaty of theoretical ab-initio calculations and approximations need such detailed input in order to evaluate the quality of these calculations. The relatively big unit-cells and therefore the high number of electrons in the organic molecules and the underlying silver atoms is a big hurdle to get accurate theoretical results in limited timeframes. The main part of this work is dedicated to the geometrical structure of different metal phthalocyanines on Ag(111). The phase diagram of the submonolayer structures of SnPc/Ag(111) shows three different parts as a function of coverage and temperature: at room temperature at lower coverages (<0.9ML) a gaseous phase appears. Between 0.9ML and 1ML incommensurate structures appear, which change their geometric parameters continously with coverage. In both phases the intermolecular distances decrease continously with coverage. At least for the incommensurate phases, this clearly proofs intermolecular repulsion. At low temperatures (<45°C) in a medium coverage region (0.5ML - 0.92ML) a commensurate structure with two molecules per unit cell occurs. It is even possible to change from the incommensurate phase (0.9ML...0.92ML) to the slightly denser packed commensurate phase via cooling: The intermolecular repulsion changes to attraction only via a temperature change. With the distance of the different species in the molecule the orientation of the molecule to the substrate could be determined for the different phases. The distances themselves indicate a chemisorption of the molecules to the Ag(111) surface. Interestingly, the molecules in the monolayer are all in &#132;Sn-down&#147;-configuration, whereas the molecules in the commensurate phase alternate in &#132;Sn-up&#147;- and &#132;Sn-down&#147;-configuration. These measurements allow an interpretation of the attraction and repulsion in between the molecules on a donation/back donation model of the chemisorption of the molecule to the substrate. These measurements are compared to the results on CuPc/Ag(111) of Ingo Kröger [46]. At last, first measurments on TiOPc/Ag(111) are presented. The data collection in the phase diagram is much less dense than in the case of SnPc. However, a similar behavior is already seen. The most prominent difference between SnPc and TiOPc is the stable bi-layer in the case of TiOPc, which cannot be removed via annealing - in contrast to the case of SnPc/Ag(111). These first geometric measurements stimulated other expermiment in our group on these systems like UPS, core-level XPS and determination of the work function which all are in favor of this donation/backdonation model and the different configurations of the molecules in the phase diagram [108, 71]. Also SPALEED and XSW measurements have been continued [46, 85].

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