Solid-state 13 C NMR experiments and quantum chemical Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations of acetone adsorption were used to study the location of protons in anhydrous 12-tungstophosphoric acid (HPW), the mobility of the isolated and hydrated acidic protons, and the acid strength heterogeneity of the anhydrous hydroxyl groups. This study presents the first direct NMR experimental evidence that there are two types of isolated protons with different acid strengths in the anhydrous Keggin HPW. Rotational Echo DOuble Resonance (REDOR) NMR experiments combined with quantum chemical DFT calculations demonstrated that acidic protons in anhydrous HPW are localized on both bridging (O c) and terminal (Od) atoms of the Keggin unit. The CP/MAS NMR experiments revealed that the isolated acidic protons are immobile, but hydrated acidic protons are highly mobile at room temperature. The isotropic chemical shift of the adsorbed acetone suggested that the acid strength of the H(H 2O)n + species in partially hydrated HPW is comparable to that of a zeolite, while the acidity of an isolated proton is much stronger than that of a zeolite. Isolated protons on the bridging oxygen atoms of anhydrous HPW are nearly superacidic.

Using trimethylphosphine (TMP) as a probe molecule, acid sites in a series of Al-MCM-41 materials with Si/Al ratios ranging from 16 to 80 were investigated by various solid-state NMR techniques including 29 Si, 31 P, 27 Al, 1 H magic-angle spinning (MAS), and some double-or triple-resonance methods such as 31 P f 1 H cross polarization (CP), 1 H/ 27 Al, and 1 H/ 31 P/ 27 Al TRAPDOR (transfer of population in double resonance). By means of the 1 H/ 27 Al TRAPDOR technique, which has the ability to establish a correlation between 1 H and 27 Al, the hydroxyl groups associated with Al could be discriminated from the silanol groups. Two signals at 3.5 and 1.9 ppm were observed in the 1 H/ 27 Al TRAPDOR spectra; they are likely due to the bridging hydroxyl (SiOHAl) and aluminum hydroxyl groups, respectively. 31 P MAS NMR strongly supports the formation of zeolitelike Bro ¨nsted acid sites in the mesoporous material after the incorporation of aluminum. The concentration of the Bro ¨nsted sites determined from 31 P MAS NMR is about 2 orders of magnitude lower than that of total SiOH groups, which renders their direct observation by 1 H MAS NMR spectroscopy difficult. However, these sites can be well studied by 31 P f 1 H CP/MAS and various triple-resonance TRAPDOR NMR techniques, which provide a more detailed description of the interactions between TMP and the different hydroxyl groups in the Al-MCM-41 materials. Although the acid strength of the Bro ¨nsted sites in the Al-MCM-41 materials is lower than that of microporous zeolites such as HY, these sites can protonate TMP molecules. Some of the framework T-site aluminum atoms are not associated with the bridging hydroxyl groups and are probably present as Al-OH. No Lewis acid sites were found in our samples, though the 27 Al MAS spectra show the existence of five-coordinate extraframework aluminum.

The distributions of Brönsted acidic protons and their acid strengths in zeolite H-MCM-22 have been characterized by density functional theory (DFT) calculations as well as magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR experiments. The embedded scheme (ONIOM) that combines the quantum mechanical (QM) description of active sites and semiempirical AM1 treatment of the neighboring environment was applied to predict the aluminum substitution mechanism and proton affinity (PA), as well as adsorption behaviors of acetone and trimethylphosphine oxide (TMPO) onto the zeolite. Our theoretical results indicate that the Al substitution takes place in the order of Al1-OH-Si2 > Al8-OH-Si8 > Al5-OH-Si7. The DFT theoretical and NMR experimental results suggest that the acid strength of the three Brönsted acid sites in H-MCM-22 zeolite is slightly lower than that of H-ZSM-5 zeolite and the accessible Brönsted acidic protons most likely reside in both the supercages (at the Al8-OH-Si8 and Al1-OH-Si2 sites) and external surface pocket (at the Al8-OH-Si8 site) rather than in the sinusoidal channels (Al5-OH-Si7), with the Al1-OH-Si2 site having the strongest acid strength (as probed by TMPO). This may partially explain the special selectivity of acid-catalyzed reactions occurring inside the channels of H-MCM-22 zeolite.

The acidity of mesoporous MoO(x)/ZrO2 and WO(x)/ZrO2 materials was studied in detail by multinuclear solid-state NMR techniques as well as DFT quantum chemical calculations. The 1H MAS NMR experiments clearly revealed the presence of two different types of strong Brønsted acid sites on both MoO(x)/ZrO2 and WO(x)/ZrO2 mesoporous materials, which were able to prontonate adsorbed pyrine-d5 (resulting in 1H NMR signals at chemical shifts in the range 16-19 ppm) as well as adsorbed trimethylphosphine (giving rise to 31P NMR signal at ca. 0 ppm). The 13C NMR of adsorbed 2-(13)C-acetone indicated that the average Brønsted acid strength of the two mesoporous materials was stronger than that of zeolite HZSM-5 but still weaker than that of 100% H2SO4, which was in good agreement with theoretical predictions. The quantum chemical calculations revealed the detailed structures of the two distinct types of Brønsted acid sites formed on the mesoporous MoO(x)/ZrO2 and WO(x)/ZrO2. The existence of both monomer and oligomer Mo (or W) species containing a Mo-OH-Zr (or W-OH-Zr) bridging OH group was confirmed with the former having an acid strength close to zeolite HZSM-5, with the latter having an acid strength similar to sulfated zirconia. On the basis of our NMR experimental and theoretical calculation results, a possible mechanism was proposed for the formation of acid sites on these mesoporous materials.

The Three Gorges Project (TGP) is the world’s largest water conservation project. The post-construction low-flow water level at the same discharge below the dam has declined, but there remains disagreement over whether the flood level has increased. Measured water levels and upstream and downstream flow data from 1955 to 2016 show that, post-construction: (1) the low-flow water level at the same discharge decreased, and the lowest water level increased due to dry-season reservoir discharge; (2) the decline of the low-flow water level below the dam was less than the undercutting value of the flow channel of the river; (3) the flood level at the same discharge below the dam was slightly elevated, although peak water levels decreased; (4) flood characteristics changed from a high discharge–high flood level to a medium discharge – high flood level; and (5) an expected decline in the flood level downstream was not observed. Channel erosion and the adjustment of rivers and lakes tend to reduce flood levels, while river bed coarsening, vegetation, and human activities downstream increase the flood level. Although the flood control benefits of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) and the upstream reservoirs are obvious, increased elevation of the downstream flood level remains a concern.

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Multinuclear solid-state NMR techniques and DFT quantum chemical calculations were employed to investigate the detailed structure of acid sites on the BF3/gamma-Al2O3 alkylation catalyst. The NMR experiment results indicate that gaseous BF3 is able to react with the hydroxyl groups present on the surface of gamma-Al2O3, leading to the formation of new Brönsted and Lewis acid sites. The 1H/11B and 1H/27Al TRAPDOR (TRAnsfer of Population in DOuble Resonance) experiments suggest that the 3.7 ppm signal in 1H NMR spectra of the BF3/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst is due to a bridging B-OH-Al group that acts as a Brönsted acid site of the catalyst. On the other hand, a Lewis acid site on the surface of the catalysts, as revealed by 31P MAS and 31P/27Al TRAPDOR NMR of adsorbed trimethylphosphine, is associated with three-coordinate -OBF2 species. 13C NMR of adsorbed 2-13C-acetone indicates that the Brönsted acid strength of the catalyst is slightly stronger than that of zeolite HZSM-5 but still weaker than that of 100% H2SO4, which is in good agreement with theoretical prediction. In addition, DFT calculations also reveal the detailed structure of various acid sites formed on the BF3/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst and the interaction of probe molecules with these sites.

Face sketch synthesis has wide applications in digital entertainment and law enforcement. Although there is much research on face sketch synthesis, most existing algorithms cannot handle some nonfacial factors, such as hair style, hairpins, and glasses if these factors are excluded in the training set. In addition, previous methods only work on well controlled conditions and fail on images with different backgrounds and sizes as the training set. To this end, this paper presents a novel method that combines both the similarity between different image patches and prior knowledge to synthesize face sketches. Given training photo-sketch pairs, the proposed method learns a photo patch feature dictionary from the training photo patches and replaces the photo patches with their sparse coefficients during the searching process. For a test photo patch, we first obtain its sparse coefficient via the learnt dictionary and then search its nearest neighbors (candidate patches) in the whole training photo patches with sparse coefficients. After purifying the nearest neighbors with prior knowledge, the final sketch corresponding to the test photo can be obtained by Bayesian inference. The contributions of this paper are as follows: 1) we relax the nearest neighbor search area from local region to the whole image without too much time consuming and 2) our method can produce nonfacial factors that are not contained in the training set and is robust against image backgrounds and can even ignore the alignment and image size aspects of test photos. Our experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms several state-of-the-arts in terms of perceptual and objective metrics.