A detailed study of the microscopic structure of an electrolyte solution, cesium chloride (CsCl) in water, is presented. For revealing the influence of salt concentration on the structure, CsCl solutions at concentrations of 1.5, 7.5, and 15 mol % are investigated. For each concentration, we combine total scattering structure factors from neutron and X-ray diffraction and 10 partial radial distribution functions from molecular dynamics simulations in one single structural model, generated by reverse Monte Carlo modeling. This combination of computer modeling methods is capable of (a) showing the extent to which simulation results are consistent with experimental diffraction data and (b) tracking down distribution functions in computer simulation that are the least comfortable with diffraction data. For the present solutions, we show that the level of consistency between simulations that use simple pair potentials and experimental structure factors is nearly quantitative. Remaining inconsistencies seem to be caused by water-water distribution functions. Changing the pair potentials of water-water interactions from SPC/E to TIP4P-2005 has not had any effect in this respect. As a final result, we obtained particle configurations from reverse Monte Carlo modeling that were in quantitative agreement with both diffraction data and most of the molecular dynamics (MD) simulated partial radial distribution functions (prdf's). From the particle coordinates, the distribution of the number of first neighbors, as well as angular correlation functions, were calculated. The average number of water molecules around cations decreases from about 8 to about 6.5 as concentration increases from 1.5 to 15 mol %, whereas the same quantity for the anions changes from about 7 to about 5. It was also found that the average angle of Cl...H-O particle arrangements, characteristic of anion-water hydrogen bonds, is closer to 180 degrees than that found for O...H-O arrangements (water-water hydrogen bonds). The present combination of experimental and computer simulation methods appears to be promising for the study of other electrolyte solutions.

The photophysics of 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) has been investigated in different solvents in the presence of aliphatic and fluorinated aliphatic alcohols, respectively. For most systems, consecutive two-step hydrogen-bonded complex formation is observed in the presence of alcohols. Equilibrium constants are determined from UV spectroscopic results for the formation of singly and doubly complexed species. The resolved absorption and fluorescence spectra for the singly and doubly complexed DMAP are derived by means of the equilibrium constants. Exceptionally large hydrogen bond basicity values are found for the ground and singlet excited DMAP molecules. In n-hexane, as a consequence of complex formation, the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) emission becomes dominant over of the locally excited fluorescence; the fluorescence and triplet yields increase considerably with complexation. In polar solvents, both the fluorescence and triplet yields of the complex are much smaller than that of the uncomplexed DMAP. The dipole moments derived for the singly complexed species from the Lippert-Mataga analysis are much larger than those of the uncomplexed molecules. However, for the relaxed ICT excited-state one obtains different dipole moments in apolar and polar solvents. This may be explained by a conformational change of the molecule in the ICT excited state from planar geometry in apolar solvent to the perpendicular structure (characterized with bigger dipole moment) in polar solvent.

A detailed study of the microscopic structure of two electrolyte solutions, cesium fluoride (CsF) and cesium iodide (CsI) in water, is presented. For revealing the influence of salt concentration on the structure, CsF solutions at concentrations of 15.1 and 32.3 mol % and CsI solutions at concentrations of 1.0 and 3.9 mol % are investigated. For each concentration, we combine total scattering structure factors from neutron and X-ray diffraction and 10 partial radial distribution functions from molecular dynamics simulations in one single structural model, generated by reverse Monte Carlo modeling. For the present solutions we show that the level of consistency between simulations that use simple pair potentials and experimental structure factors is at least semiquantitative for even the extremely highly concentrated CsF solutions. Remaining inconsistencies seem to be caused primarily by water-water distribution functions, whereas slightly problematic parts appear on the ion-oxygen partials, too. As a final result, we obtained particle configurations from reverse Monte Carlo modeling that were in quantitative agreement with both sets of diffraction data and most of the MD simulated partial radial distribution functions. From the particle coordinates, distributions of the number of first neighbors as well as angular correlation functions were calculated. The average number of water molecules around cations in both materials decreases from about 8.0 to about 5.1 as concentration increases, whereas the same quantity for the anions (X) changes from about 5.3 to about 3.7 in the case of CsF and from about 6.2 to about 4.0 in the case of CsI. The average angle of X···H-O particle arrangements, characteristic of anion-water hydrogen bonds, is closer to 180° than that found for O···H-O arrangements (water-water hydrogen bonds) at higher concentrations.

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Radiolytic reactions of phenylureas were studied in detail with fenuron model compound in dilute aqueous solutions using pulse radiolysis for detection of the intermediates, gamma radiolysis with UV-Vis and HPLC-MS techniques for analysis of the final products. The kinetics of oxidation was followed by COD, TOC and toxicity measurements. During radiolysis of aerated solutions hydroxyl radical ((•)OH), eaq (-), H(•) and O2 (•-)/HO2 (•) reactive intermediates are produced, the degradation of solute takes place practically entirely through (•)OH reactions. Therefore, the product distribution is similar to the distributions reported in other advanced oxidation processes with (•)OH as main reactant. (•)OH mainly reacts with the aromatic ring, forming cyclohexadienyl radical as an intermediate. This radical in pulse radiolysis has a wide absorption band in the 310-390 nm wavelength range with a maximum at 350 nm. Cyclohexadienyl radical reacts with dissolved O2 with a rate coefficient of ∼ 4 × 10(8) mol(-1) dm(3) s(-1) forming peroxy radical. The latter may eliminate HO2 (•) giving phenols or undergoes fragmentation. The one-electron oxidant (•)OH on average induces more than two-electron oxidations. The toxicity first increases with absorbed dose, then decreases. This increase is partly due to phenols formed during the first degradation period.

A full account of the OH-induced free radical chemistry of an arylalkylamine is given taking all the possible reaction pathways quantitatively into consideration. Such knowledge is indispensable when the alkylamine side chain plays a crucial role in biological activity. The fundamental reactions are investigated on the model compound N-methyl-3-phenypropylamine (MPPA), and extended to its biologically active analog, to the antidepressant fluoxetine (FLX). Pulse radiolysis techniques were applied including redox titration and transient spectral analysis supplemented with DFT calculations. The contribution of the amine moiety to the free radical-induced oxidation mechanism appeared to be appreciable.O was used to observe hydrogen atom abstraction events at pH 14 giving rise to the strongly reducing α-aminoalkyl radicals (∼38% of the radical yield) and to benzyl (∼4%), β-aminoalkyl (∼24%), and aminyl radicals (∼31%) of MPPA. One-electron transfer was also observed yielding aminium radicals with low efficiency (∼3%). In the OH-induced oxidation protonated α-aminoalkyl (∼49%), β-aminoalkyl (∼27%), benzyl radicals (∼4%), and aminium radicals (∼5%) are initially generated on the side chain of MPPA at pH 6, whereas hydroxycyclohexadienyl radicals (∼15%) were also produced. These initial events are followed by complex protonation-deprotonation reactions establishing acid-base equilibria; however, these processes are limited by the transient nature of the radicals and the kinetics of the ongoing reactions. The contribution of the radicals from the side chain alkylamine substituent of FLX totals up to ∼54% of the initially available oxidant yield.

BackgroundCutting edge technologies based on Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP) are under development for the elimination of highly persistent organic molecules (like pesticides) from water matrices. Among them, ionizing radiation treatment represents a promising technology that requires no additives and can be easily adapted to an industrial scale. In these processes several reactive species are produced, mainly powerful oxidizing radicals inducing the degradation. This paper investigates the reactions taking place in dilute aqueous solutions of a hazardous pollutant (diuron) during irradiation.ResultsIrradiation of aqueous diuron solutions resulted in effective degradation of the solute mainly due to the reactions of hydroxyl radicals formed in water radiolysis. Hydroxyl radical reacts with diuron with a second order rate constant of (5.8 ± 0.3) × 109 mol−1 dm3 s−1. The main reaction is addition to the ring forming hydroxycyclohexadienyl radical. 30 − 50% of hydroxyl radical reactions induce dechlorination. Reactions with the methyl groups or with the α-amino group have low contribution to the transformation. The presence of dissolved oxygen enhances the rate of degradation; one hydroxyl radical on average induces five-electron oxidations. The high oxidation rate is attributed to the reaction of some of the primarily formed organic radicals with dissolved O2 and the subsequent reactions of the peroxy radicals.ConclusionThe presence of dissolved oxygen is highly important to achieve efficient ionizing radiation induced degradation of diuron in dilute aqueous solution.

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