TY - JOUR A1 - Edzards, Joshua A1 - Saßnick, Holger-Dietrich A1 - Buzanich, Ana Guilherme A1 - Valencia, Ana M. A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Beyer, Sebastian A1 - Cocchi, Caterina T1 - Effects of Ligand Substituents on the Character of Zn-Coordination in Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks JF - The Journal of Physical Chemistry C N2 - Due to their favorable properties and high porosity, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) have recently received much limelight for key technologies such as energy storage, optoelectronics, sensorics, and catalysis. Despite widespread interest in these materials, fundamental questions regarding the zinc coordination environment remain poorly understood. By focusing on zinc(II)2-methylimidazolate (ZIF-8) and its tetrahedrally coordinated analogues with Br-, Cl-, and H-substitution in the 2-ring position, we aim to clarify how variations in the local environment of Zn impact the charge distribution and the electronic properties of these materials. Our results from densityfunctional theory confirm the presence of a Zn coordinative bond with a large polarization that is quantitatively affected by different substituents on the organic ligand. Moreover, our findings suggest that the variations in the Zn coordination induced by the functionalization have a negligible effect on the electronic structure of the considered compounds. On the other hand, halogen terminations of the ligands lead to distinct electronic contributions in the vicinity of the frontier region which ultimately reduce the band gap size by a few hundred millielectron volts. Experimental results obtained from X-ray absorption spectroscopy (Zn K-edge) confirm the trends predicted by theory and, together with them, contribute to a better understanding of the structure−property relationships that are needed to tailor ZIFs for target applications. KW - Surfaces KW - Physical and Theoretical Chemistry KW - General Energy KW - Electronic KW - Coatings and Films KW - Optical and Magnetic Materials PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-589117 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c06054 SN - 1932-7447 VL - 127 IS - 43 SP - 21456 EP - 21464 PB - American Chemical Society (ACS) AN - OPUS4-58911 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Scheurrell, Kerstin A1 - B. Martins, Inês C. A1 - Murray, Claire A1 - Emmerling, Franziska T1 - Exploring the role of solvent polarity in mechanochemical Knoevenagel condensation: in situ investigation and isolation of reaction intermediates JF - Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics N2 - Mechanochemistry has proven to be a highly effective method for the synthesis of organic compounds. We studied the kinetics of the catalyst-free Knoevenagel reaction between 4-nitrobenzaldehyde and malononitrile, activated and driven by ball milling. The reaction was investigated in the absence of solvents (neat grinding) and in the presence of solvents with different polarities (liquid-assisted grinding). The reaction was monitored using time-resolved in situ Raman spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Our results indicate a direct relationship between solvent polarity and reaction kinetics, with higher solvent polarity leading to faster product (2-(4-nitrobenzylidone)malononitrile) formation. For the first time, we were able to isolate and determine the structure of an intermediate 2-(hydroxy(4-nitrophenyl)methyl)malononitrile based on PXRD data. KW - Physical and Theoretical Chemistry KW - General Physics and Astronomy PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-588071 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CP02883F SN - 1463-9076 VL - 25 IS - 35 SP - 23637 EP - 23644 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-58807 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -