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Metal Decorated Silsesquioxane Structures

This page shows visualizations for Metal Decorated Silsesquioxane Structures. These structures were created by Dr. Nethika Suraweera and Prof. David Keffer in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee, in collaboration with Prof. Craig Barnes and his research group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee.

The silsesquioxane matrices have a polymer like structure with silsesquioxane units interconnected by inorganic cross linkers. They have dispersed Ti acting as isolated metal catalytic centers. Interconnected silsesquioxane units provide a nanoporous, high surface area support to the structure. These amorphous structures have 4 different types of atomic groups.

  1. Silsesquioxane cubes consisting of 8 Si atoms and 12 O atoms
  2. SiCl2 bridges that interconnect the cubes
  3. TiCl3 catalytic sites connected to cubes as an end unit
  4. Si(CH3)3 connected to cubes as an end unit

Illustrations for these atomic groups and their connections can be found at following links:



References

Suraweera, N.S., Albert, A.A., Peretich, M.E., Abbott, J., Humble, J.R., Barnes, C.E., Keffer, D.J., "Methane and Carbon Dioxide Adsorption and Diffusion in Amorphous, Metal-Decorated Nanoporous Silica", Molec. Simul. 40 (7-9) 2014 pp. 618-633,doi: 10.1080/08927022.2013.829223.

Suraweera, N.S., Albert, A.A., Humble, J.R., Barnes, C.E., Keffer, D.J., "Hydrogen Adsorption and Diffusion in Amorphous, Metal-Decorated Nanoporous Silica", Int. J. Hydrogen Energy., 39 2014 pp. 9241-9253. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.03.247.

Suraweera, N.S., Barnes, C.E., Keffer, D.J., "The Adsorption Properties of Amorphous, Metal-Decorated Microporous Silsesquioxanes for Mixtures of Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Hydrogen", J. Phys. Chem. C, in press 2014 pp. xxxx-xxxx. doi: 10.1021/jp503703f.

posted: May 2014.
updated: May 2014.