Low-temperature, low-pressure studies of clathrate hydrates (CHs) have revealed that small ether and other proton-acceptor guests greatly enhance rates of clathrate hydrate nucleation and growth; rapid formation and transformations are enabled at temperatures as low as 110 K, and cool moist vapors containing small ether molecules convert to mixed-gas CHs on a subsecond time scale. More recently, FTIR spectroscopic studies of the tetrahydrofuran (THF)-HCN double clathrate hydrate revealed a sizable frequency shift accompanied by a four-fold intensification of the C-N stretch-mode absorption of the small cage HCN, behavior that is enhanced by cooling and which correlates precisely with similar significant changes of the ether C-O/C-C stretch modes. These temperature-dependent correlated changes in the infrared spectra have been attributed to equilibrated extensive hydrogen bonding of neighboring large- and small-cage guest molecules with water molecules of the intervening wall. An ether guest functions as a proton acceptor, particularly so when complemented by the action of a proton-donor (HCN)/electron-acceptor (SO(2)) small-cage guest. Because guest molecules of the classic clathrate hydrates do not participate in hydrogen bonds with the host water, this H-bonding of guests has been labeled "nonclassical". The present study has been enriched by comparing observed FTIR spectra with high-level molecular orbital computational results for guests and hydrogen-bonded guest-water dimers. Vibrational frequency shifts, from heterodimerization of ethers and water, correlate well with the corresponding observed classical to nonclassical shifts. The new spectroscopic data reveal that the nonclassical structures can contribute at observable levels to CH infrared spectra for a remarkable range of temperatures and choice of guest molecules. By the choice of guest molecules, it is now possible to select the abundance levels of nonclassical configurations, ranging from ∼0 to 100%, for a given temperature. This ability is expected to hasten understanding of the role of guest-induced nonclassical structures in the acceleration or inhibition of the rates of CH formation and transformation.
High quality FTIR spectra of aerosols of NH-THF and NH-TMO binary clathrate hydrates (CHs) have been measured. Our recently developed all-vapor sub-second approach to clathrate-hydrate formation combined with computational studies has been used to identify vibrational spectroscopic signatures of NH within the gas hydrates. The present study shows that there are three distinct NH types, namely, classical small-cage NH, nonclassical small-cage NH, and NH within the hydrate network. The network ammonia does not directly trigger the non-classical CH structure. Rather, the ammonia within the network structure perturbs the water bonding, introducing orientational defects that are stabilized by small and/or large cage guest molecules through H-bonding. This unusual behavior of NH within CHs opens a possibility for catalytic action of NH during CH-formation. Furthermore, impacts over time of the small-cage NH-replacement molecules CO and CH on the structure and composition of the ternary CHs have been noted.
Recent demonstrations of subsecond and microsecond timescales for formation of clathrate hydrate nanocrystals hint at future methods of control of environmental and industrial gases such as CO2 and methane. Combined results from cold-chamber and supersonic-nozzle [A. S. Bhabhe, "Experimental study of condensation and freezing in a supersonic nozzle," Ph.D. thesis (Ohio State University, 2012), Chap. 7] experiments indicate extremely rapid encagement of components of all-vapor pre-mixtures. The extreme rates are derived from (a) the all-vapor premixing of the gas-hydrate components and (b) catalytic activity of certain oxygenated organic large-cage guests. Premixing presents no obvious barrier to large-scale conditions of formation. Further, from sequential efforts of the groups of Trout and Buch, a credible defect-based model of the catalysis mechanism exists for guidance. Since the catalyst-generated defects are both mobile and abundant, it is often unnecessary for a high percentage of the cages to be occupied by a molecular catalyst. Droplets represent the liquid phase that bridges the premixed vapor and clathrate hydrate phases but few data exist for the droplets themselves. Here we describe a focused computational and FTIR spectroscopic effort to characterize the aerosol droplets of the all-vapor cold-chamber methodology. Computational data for CO2 and C2H2, hetero-dimerized with each of the organic catalysts and water, closely match spectroscopic redshift patterns in both magnitude and direction. Though vibrational frequency shifts are an order of magnitude greater for the acetylene stretch mode, both CO2 and C2H2 experience redshift values that increase from that for an 80% water-methanol solvent through the solvent series to approximately doubled values for tetrahydrofuran and trimethylene oxide (TMO) droplets. The TMO solvent properties extend to a 50 mol.% solution of CO2, more than an order of magnitude greater than for the water-methanol solvent mixture. The impressive agreement between heterodimer and experimental shift values throughout the two series encourages speculation concerning local droplet structures while the stable shift patterns appear to be useful indicators of the gas solubilities.
Recent years have yielded advances in the placement of unusual molecules as guests within clathrate hydrates (CHs) without severe distortion of the classic lattice structures. Reports describing systems for which observable but limited distortion does occur are available for methanol, ammonia, acetone, and small ether molecules. In these particular examples, the large-cage molecules often participate as non-classical guests H-bonded to the cage walls. Here, we expand the list of such components to include HCl/DCl and HBr as small-cage guests. Based on FTIR spectra of nanocrystalline CHs from two distinct preparative methods combined with critical insights derived from on-the-fly molecular dynamics and ab initio computational data, a coherent argument emerges that these strong acids serve as a source of molecular small-cage guests, ions, and orientational defects. Depending on the HCl/DCl content the ions, defects and molecular guests determine the CH structures, some of which form in sub-seconds via an all-vapor preparative method.
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