The Born-Oppenheimer approximation of uncoupled electronic and nuclear motion is a standard tool of the computational chemist. However, its validity for molecule-metal surface reactions, which are important to heterogeneous catalysis, has been questioned because of the possibility of electron-hole pair excitations. We have performed experiments and calculations on the scattering of molecular hydrogen from a catalytically relevant metal surface, obtaining absolute probabilities for changes in the molecule's velocity parallel to the representative Pt(111) surface. The comparison for in-plane and out-of-plane scattering and results for dissociative chemisorption in the same system show that for hydrogen-metal systems, reaction and diffractive scattering can be accurately described using the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.

NMR spectroscopy is applied to study microstructure of calcium silicate hydrates present in cement and concrete. It is shown that 29Si NMR gives information on the siliceous skeleton of the hydrates. 1H NMR, using CRAMPS techniques, allows to discriminate between protons linked to silicon atoms or to calcium atoms. A first investigation of reference compounds indicates that 43Ca NMR will be powerful to determine calcium atom sites in the structure.