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The surface chemistry of methylated arsenicals with ubiquitous geosorbents and industrial catalysts is poorly understood. These arsenic compounds pose both a health and an environmental risk in addition to being a challenge to the energy industry. We report herein a detailed spectroscopic analysis of the surface structure of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) adsorbed on hematite and goethite using attenuated total internal reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Spectra of adsorbed DMA, DMA(ads), were collected in situ as a function of pH and ionic strength, using both H(2)O and D(2)O at 298 K in flow mode. Experimental data were complemented with DFT calculations of geometries and frequencies of hydrated DMA-iron oxide clusters. Results indicate the simultaneous formation of inner- and outer-sphere complexes with distinct spectral components. Desorption behavior of DMA due to chloride and phosphate was studied as a function of time from the decrease in the absorbance of apparent spectral features. The impact of our studies on the environmental fate of DMA in geochemical environments and the design of technologies to reduce arsenic content in fuels are discussed.

We consider a nearly (or quasi) uniform gas of interacting electrons for which spin statistics play a crucial role. A previously developed procedure, based on the extension of the Levy–Lieb constrained search principle and Monte Carlo sampling of electron configurations in space, allows us to approximate the form of the kinetic-energy functional. For a spinless electron gas, this procedure led to a correlation term, which had the form of the Shannon entropy, but the resulting kinetic-energy functional does not satisfy the Lieb–Thirring inequality, which is rigorous and one of the most general relations regarding the kinetic energy. In this paper, we show that when the fermionic character of the electrons is included via a statistical spin approach, our procedure leads to correlation terms, which also have the form of the Shannon entropy and the resulting kinetic-energy functional does satisfy the Lieb–Thirring inequality. In this way we further strengthen the connection between Shannon entropy and electron correlation and, more generally, between information theory and quantum mechanics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formal definition of the generalized discrete variable representation (DVR) for quantum mechanics and its connection to the usual variational basis representation (VBR) is given. Using the one dimensional Morse oscillator example, we compare the ‘‘Gaussian quadrature’’ DVR, more general DVR’s, and other ‘‘pointwise’’ representations such as the finite difference method and a Simpson’s rule quadrature. The DVR is shown to be accurate in itself, and an efficient representation for optimizing basis set parameters. Extensions to multidimensional problems are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We strengthen the connection between information theory and quantum mechanical systems using a recently developed dequantization procedure which results in a decomposition of the kinetic energy as the sum of a classical term and a purely quantum term. For the nearly uniform electron gas, we thereby approximate the noninteracting kinetic energy as the sum of the Thomas-Fermi term, which is exact for the uniform electron gas, and the Weizsäcker term, which is proportional to the Fisher information. Electron correlation is included via a nonlocal analytical expression which is a functional of the ( N-1)-conditional probability density. This expression is evaluated via a statistically rigorous Monte-Carlo procedure to obtain the correlation energy as a functional of the electron density. We show that this functional is well aproximated by a term which is proportional to the Shannon entropy. Thus the kinetic energy is expressed as the standard Thomas-Fermi term plus terms which are proportional to two of the cornerstones of information theory: the Fisher information, which is a measure of localization, and the Shannon entropy, which is a measure of delocalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ a recently formulated dequantization procedure to obtain an exact expression for the kinetic energy which is applicable to all kinetic-energy functionals. We express the kinetic energy of an N-electron system as the sum of an N-electron classical kinetic energy and an N-electron purely quantum kinetic energy arising from the quantum fluctuations that turn the classical momentum into the quantum momentum. This leads to an interesting analogy with Nelson’s stochastic approach to quantum mechanics, which we use to conceptually clarify the physical nature of part of the kinetic-energy functional in terms of statistical fluctuations and in direct correspondence with Fisher Information Theory. We show that the N-electron purely quantum kinetic energy can be written as the sum of the (one-electron) Weizsäcker term and an ( N−1)-electron kinetic correlation term. We further show that the Weizsäcker term results from local fluctuations while the kinetic correlation term results from the nonlocal fluctuations. We then write the N-electron classical kinetic energy as the sum of the (one-electron) classical kinetic energy and another ( N−1)-electron kinetic correlation term. For one-electron orbitals (where kinetic correlation is neglected) we obtain an exact (albeit impractical) expression for the noninteracting kinetic energy as the sum of the classical kinetic energy and the Weizsäcker term. The classical kinetic energy is seen to be explicitly dependent on the electron phase, and this has implications for the development of accurate orbital-free kinetic-energy functionals. Also, there is a direct connection between the classical kinetic energy and the angular momentum and, across a row of the periodic table, the classical kinetic energy component of the noninteracting kinetic energy generally increases as Z increases. Finally, we underline that, although our aim in this paper is conceptual rather than practical, our results are potentially useful for the construction of improved kinetic-energy functionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory level in combination with recently developed pseudopotential-based correlation consistent basis sets to obtain accurate relativistic-consistent electron densities for small coinage metal clusters. Using calculated electron densities, we employ Bader's quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTALM) to gain insights into the nature of metal-metal bonding in the clusters M2, M4, M4,2-, and M4Na2 (M = Cu, Ag, Au). For the simplest case of the metal dimer, M2, we correlate the strength of the metal-metal bond with the value of the electron density at the bond critical point, the total energy density at the bond critical point, the sharing (derealization) index, and the values of die two principle negative curvatures. We then consider changes to the metal-metal bonding and charge density distribution upon the addition of two metal atoms to form the metal tetramer, M4 and then followed by the addition of an electron pair to form M42- and finally followed by die addition of two alkali metal (sodium) ions to form M4Na2. Using topological properties of die electron density, we present evidence for the existence of a-aromaticity in Au42- . We also report die existence of two non-nuclear attractors in the molecular in the molecular graph of Cu42- and large negative charge accumulation in the nonbonded Cu basins of this cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]