Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 20, 2025

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Isotopic separation in mixed clusters of molecular hydrogen
Kiril M Kolevski1, Jie-Ru Hu1, Massimo Boninsegni1
1Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H5, Canada.
Abstract:
We investigate mixed (50/50) clusters of parahydrogen and orthodeuterium at low temperatures, by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Our results provide evidence of liquid-like behavior and partial isotopic separation in a cluster of 640 molecules, at temperature T = 10 K. As the temperature is lowered below ∼6 K, crystallization occurs, with no indication that the liquid phase is more resilient at low temperatures in a mixed cluster. Isotopic separation is therefore predicted to take place at low temperatures only through the slow process of molecular self-diffusion in a crystalline matrix.
Related Concept Videos
Mass Spectrometry: Isotope Effect
Mass Spectrometry: Alkyl Halide Fragmentation
¹H NMR: Complex Splitting
Splitting diagrams or splitting tree diagrams are routinely used to depict such complex couplings. While drawing splitting diagrams, the splitting with the larger coupling constant is usually applied...
¹³C NMR: ¹H–¹³C Decoupling
A broadband decoupling technique is used to simplify these complex, sometimes overlapping, signals. Broadband decoupling relies on a...
¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Homotopic and Heterotopic Protons
Molecular Orbital Theory II

