Synthesis and Characterisation of Gold Nanoclusters for Catalysis Applications

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Synthesis and Characterisation of Gold Nanoclusters for Catalysis Applications SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERISATION OF GOLD NANOCLUSTERS FOR CATALYSIS APPLICATIONS Maria Leonor Rodrigues Alves UNIVERSITAT AUTÒNOMA DE BARCELONA DEPARTAMENT DE FÍSICA SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERISATION OF GOLD NANOCLUSTERS FOR CATALYSIS APPLICATIONS PhD Thesis Maria Leonor Rodrigues Alves Directors: Dr. Ernest Mendoza Gómez Dr. Jordi Llorca Piqué Tutor: Dr. Jordi Pascual Gainza Barcelona, 2014 UNIVERSITAT AUTÒNOMA DE BARCELONA DEPARTAMENT DE FÍSICA SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERISATION OF GOLD NANOCLUSTERS FOR CATALYSIS APPLICATIONS Thesis submitted by Maria Leonor Rodrigues Alves for the degree of Doctor in Materials Science Barcelona, 2014 Maria Leonor Rodrigues Alves Barcelona, Març 2014 El Dr. Ernest Mendoza Gómez, Professor Agregat del Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, el Dr. Jordi Llorca Piqué, Professor Agregat de l’Institut de Tècniques Energètiques de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, i el Dr. Jordi Pascual Gainza, Catedràtic del Departament de Física de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. CERTIFIQUEN: La present tesis titulada: “Synthesis and characterisation of gold nanoclusters for catalysis applications” presentada per Maria Leonor Rodrigues Alves per optar al grau de Doctora en Ciència de Materials per la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ha estat realitzada sota la seva direcció en el Centre de Recerca en Nanoenginyeria de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, i trobant-se conclosa, autoritzen la seva presentació perquè sigui avaluada pel tribunal corresponent. Dr. Ernest Mendoza Gómez Dr. Jordi Llorca Piqué Dr. Jordi Pascual Gainza (Director) (Director) (Tutor) To my mother, father, brothers and sister. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank Ernest Mendoza for many reasons. For always supporting me from the beginning and for always being available and believing in my work over the past four years. I am grateful for his enthusiasm, emparting knowledge in different fields, advice on how to improve my work and for having always closely followed my PhD research. I thank him for his kindness and humanity. Then, I thank Jordi Llorca, who contributed a lot since the second year of my PhD. I also thank him for his kindness and humanity, sharing his knowledge in different fields, for always being available and following the work closely. I thank Marta Santiago, for all her help, teaching, sharing of ideas and her kindness. I thank Belén Ballesteros for having taught me during the first year how to operate an HRTEM microscope; for all her patience, kindness, good teaching and help. I thank César Fernandéz, for all the help in the first year. I thank Trifon Trifonov, for all the help and for teaching me how to operate the SEM microscope. I thank Zaira Blazquez, Edurne Galindo, Nahikari Zuasti, Meritxell Molmeneu, Montserrat Domínguez, Alvaro Mayoral and Gemma Guilera, for their contributions to this thesis. I thank Lucília Salbany, for the help improving the language of this thesis. I thank Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, for the SFRH/BD/75925/2011 fellowship assigned to me. I thank Carlos, Sérgio, Arnau, Sunny, Neus and Jesús, for making my integration during my first year in Barcelona so much easier. I thank Núria, Cristian, Elena, Edu, Albert, Vanessa, Reinhold, David and César, for the time and moments that we shared every day at work. I thank Kasia, Magda, Pablito, Joa, Miriam, Sara, Fer, Francisco, Majo, Juan, Rox, Sebastián, Anita and Marcelo, for the good moments that we had during the time we were together in Barcelona. I thank Catarina, Cátia, Joana and João, for the friendship which we have maintained for nine years and for the mutual support even when we were living in three different continents and five different cities. I thank Filipe, Clara, Nuno and Susana, for the good moments that we always share each time we get together in Portugal. For the contact that we keep, the care and for being such good listeners. I thank David for always having the right words. I thank Maria, for being such a good example of courage and determination. I thank Raúl, Esteban, Felipe and Robert, for their support, friendship, help and mutual trust. I thank Diana and Rosa, for their support, care and for always being there to listen whenever I needed. I thank Ana, my sister, for having so much patience with me, for her help in improving my work and for always taking care of me. I thank Pedro, my brother, for the care, help and support, never judging me. I thank Zé, my brother, for the care. I thank my father, for the education and values that he has instilled in me during all these years. For the help in everything that I needed wherever I would be. I thank my mother, especially, because she is the one who suffered the most with my absence over the last four years. Thank you for being so kind, a good educator and for always supporting me. Because in the end, family is the only thing that is always present to defend and support you during the difficult moments. NOMENCLATURE AND ABREVIATIONS SYNTHESISED CATALYSTS NOMENCLATURE Catalyst of Au synthesised in-situ with a x wt% Au(xwt%)/support nominal gold content Catalyst of Au synthesised ex-situ with a x wt% ncAu(xwt%)/support nominal gold content ABREVIATIONS AFM Atomic Force Microscopy BE Binding Energy BET Brunauer-Emmett-Teller CB Carbon Black CN Coordination Number CNTs Carbon Nanotubes Co-P Co-Precipitation d Metal particle diameter DI Distilled water DOM Dimensionally Ordered Macroporous DP Deposition-Precipitation EXAFS Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure fcc face-centered cubic FT Fourier Transform HRTEM High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy ICP-OES Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy MWCNTs Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes NPs Nanoparticles SEM Scanning Electron Microscopy STEM Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy SWCNTs Singlewalled Carbon Nanotubes T Temperature TEM Transmission Electron Microscopy TG Thermogravimetric TGA Thermogravimetric Analysis TPO Temperature Programmed Oxidation T50 Temperature at which 50% of the carbon material is converted Ti Initial temperature of combustion of the carbon material Temperature of the maximum combustion rate of the carbon T m material Temperature of the inflection point of the TG curve of the carbon T s material XANES X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure XAS X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy INDEX SUMMARY .....................................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: ..................................................................................................................................5 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................5 1.1 CATALYSIS BY GOLD.................................................................................................7 1.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF SMALL GOLD NANOPARTICLES (GOLD CLUSTERS) ...................................................................................................................8 1.2.1 GOLD NANOPARTICLES STRUCTURAL AND ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES DEPENDENCE ON THEIR SIZE ....................................... 10 1.2.2 METAL-SUPPORT INTERACTIONS .......................................................... 13 1.3 SYNTHESIS OF SUPPORTED Au NANOPARTICLES/NANOCLUSTERS .. 16 1.3.1 IMPREGNATION ............................................................................................. 18 1.3.2 CO-PRECIPITATION ...................................................................................... 20 1.3.3 DEPOSITION-PRECIPITATION .................................................................. 21 1.3.4 ANION ADSORPTION .................................................................................... 23 1.3.5 COLLOIDAL GOLD .......................................................................................... 23 1.3.6 SONOCHEMICAL SYNTHESIS ..................................................................... 25 1.3.7 OTHER METHODS.......................................................................................... 28 1.4 HETEROGENEOUS CATALYSIS WITH GOLD ATOMS (SYNTHESIS OF ISOLATED GOLD ATOMS) .................................................................................... 29 1.5 CATALYSTS SUPPORTS ......................................................................................... 31 1.6 GOLD CATALYSTS’ PRACTICAL APLICATIONS ............................................. 35 1.6.1 CO OXIDATION................................................................................................ 35 1.6.2 CATALYTIC OXIDATION OF CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS............ 41 1.8 OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................................. 57 1.9 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 59 CHAPTER 2: ............................................................................................................................... 71 CHARACTERISATION TECHNIQUES AND METHODS ................................................. 71 2.1 TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (TEM) ...................................... 73 i 2.2 SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM) ................................................. 76 2.3 ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY (AFM) .............................................................. 77 2.4 X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY (XPS) ......................................
Recommended publications
  • Lurking in the Shadows: Wide-Separation Gas Giants As Tracers of Planet Formation
    Lurking in the Shadows: Wide-Separation Gas Giants as Tracers of Planet Formation Thesis by Marta Levesque Bryan In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California 2018 Defended May 1, 2018 ii © 2018 Marta Levesque Bryan ORCID: [0000-0002-6076-5967] All rights reserved iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank Heather Knutson, who I had the great privilege of working with as my thesis advisor. Her encouragement, guidance, and perspective helped me navigate many a challenging problem, and my conversations with her were a consistent source of positivity and learning throughout my time at Caltech. I leave graduate school a better scientist and person for having her as a role model. Heather fostered a wonderfully positive and supportive environment for her students, giving us the space to explore and grow - I could not have asked for a better advisor or research experience. I would also like to thank Konstantin Batygin for enthusiastic and illuminating discussions that always left me more excited to explore the result at hand. Thank you as well to Dimitri Mawet for providing both expertise and contagious optimism for some of my latest direct imaging endeavors. Thank you to the rest of my thesis committee, namely Geoff Blake, Evan Kirby, and Chuck Steidel for their support, helpful conversations, and insightful questions. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Brendan Bowler. His talk at Caltech my second year of graduate school introduced me to an unexpected population of massive wide-separation planetary-mass companions, and lead to a long-running collaboration from which several of my thesis projects were born.
    [Show full text]
  • Naming the Extrasolar Planets
    Naming the extrasolar planets W. Lyra Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, K¨onigstuhl 17, 69177, Heidelberg, Germany [email protected] Abstract and OGLE-TR-182 b, which does not help educators convey the message that these planets are quite similar to Jupiter. Extrasolar planets are not named and are referred to only In stark contrast, the sentence“planet Apollo is a gas giant by their assigned scientific designation. The reason given like Jupiter” is heavily - yet invisibly - coated with Coper- by the IAU to not name the planets is that it is consid- nicanism. ered impractical as planets are expected to be common. I One reason given by the IAU for not considering naming advance some reasons as to why this logic is flawed, and sug- the extrasolar planets is that it is a task deemed impractical. gest names for the 403 extrasolar planet candidates known One source is quoted as having said “if planets are found to as of Oct 2009. The names follow a scheme of association occur very frequently in the Universe, a system of individual with the constellation that the host star pertains to, and names for planets might well rapidly be found equally im- therefore are mostly drawn from Roman-Greek mythology. practicable as it is for stars, as planet discoveries progress.” Other mythologies may also be used given that a suitable 1. This leads to a second argument. It is indeed impractical association is established. to name all stars. But some stars are named nonetheless. In fact, all other classes of astronomical bodies are named.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Companions Around the K Giant Stars 11 Ursae Minoris and HD 32518
    A&A 505, 1311–1317 (2009) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200911702 & c ESO 2009 Astrophysics Planetary companions around the K giant stars 11 Ursae Minoris and HD 32518 M. P. Döllinger1, A. P. Hatzes2, L. Pasquini1, E. W. Guenther2, and M. Hartmann2 1 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany e-mail: [email protected] 2 Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany Received 22 January 2009 / Accepted 10 August 2009 ABSTRACT Context. 11 UMi and HD 32518 belong to a sample of 62 K giant stars that has been observed since February 2004 using the 2m Alfred Jensch telescope of the Thüringer Landessternwarte (TLS) to measure precise radial velocities (RVs). Aims. The aim of this survey is to investigate the dependence of planet formation on the mass of the host star by searching for plane- tary companions around intermediate-mass giants. Methods. An iodine absorption cell was used to obtain accurate RVs for this study. Results. Our measurements reveal that the RVs of 11 UMi show a periodic variation of 516.22 days with a semiamplitude of −1 −7 K = 189.70 m s . An orbital solution yields a mass function of f (m) = (3.608 ± 0.441) × 10 solar masses (M) and an eccentricity of e = 0.083 ± 0.03. The RV curve of HD 32518 shows sinusoidal variations with a period of 157.54 days and a semiamplitude of −1 −8 K = 115.83 m s . An orbital solution yields an eccentricity, e = 0.008 ± 0.03 and a mass function, f (m) = (2.199 ± 0.235) × 10 M.
    [Show full text]
  • Pdfs) for Each Orbital Parameter Used in and (3) in Cumming Et Al
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Caltech Authors The Astrophysical Journal, 709:396–410, 2010 January 20 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/709/1/396 C 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. RETIRED A STARS AND THEIR COMPANIONS. III. COMPARING THE MASS–PERIOD DISTRIBUTIONS OF PLANETS AROUND A-TYPE STARS AND SUN-LIKE STARS∗ Brendan P. Bowler1, John Asher Johnson1,7, Geoffrey W. Marcy2, Gregory W. Henry3, Kathryn M. G. Peek2, Debra A. Fischer4, Kelsey I. Clubb4, Michael C. Liu1, Sabine Reffert5, Christian Schwab5, and Thomas B. Lowe6 1 Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA; [email protected] 2 Department of Astronomy, University of California, MS 3411, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA 3 Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Tennessee State University, 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd., Box 9501, Nashville, TN 37209, USA 4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA 5 ZAH-Landessternwarte, Konigstuhl¨ 12, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany 6 UCO/Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA Received 2009 June 10; accepted 2009 December 3; published 2009 December 31 ABSTRACT We present an analysis of ∼5 years of Lick Observatory radial velocity measurements targeting a uniform sample of 31 intermediate-mass (IM) subgiants (1.5 M∗/M 2.0) with the goal of measuring the occurrence rate of Jovian planets around (evolved) A-type stars and comparing the distributions of their orbital and physical characteristics to those of planets around Sun-like stars.
    [Show full text]
  • IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names 2019 Annual Report
    IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names 2019 Annual Report Eric Mamajek (chair, USA) WG Members: Juan Antonio Belmote Avilés (Spain), Sze-leung Cheung (Thailand), Beatriz García (Argentina), Steven Gullberg (USA), Duane Hamacher (Australia), Susanne M. Hoffmann (Germany), Alejandro López (Argentina), Javier Mejuto (Honduras), Thierry Montmerle (France), Jay Pasachoff (USA), Ian Ridpath (UK), Clive Ruggles (UK), B.S. Shylaja (India), Robert van Gent (Netherlands), Hitoshi Yamaoka (Japan) WG Associates: Danielle Adams (USA), Yunli Shi (China), Doris Vickers (Austria) WGSN Website: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/ ​ WGSN Email: [email protected] ​ The Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) consists of an international group of astronomers with expertise in stellar astronomy, astronomical history, and cultural astronomy who research and catalog proper names for stars for use by the international astronomical community, and also to aid the recognition and preservation of intangible astronomical heritage. The Terms of Reference and membership for WG Star Names (WGSN) are provided at the IAU website: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/. ​ ​ ​ WGSN was re-proposed to Division C and was approved in April 2019 as a functional WG whose scope extends beyond the normal 3-year cycle of IAU working groups. The WGSN was specifically called out on p. 22 of IAU Strategic Plan 2020-2030: “The IAU serves as the ​ internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and their surface features. To do so, the IAU has a number of Working Groups on various topics, most notably on the nomenclature of small bodies in the Solar System and planetary systems under Division F and on Star Names under Division C.” WGSN continues its long term activity of researching cultural astronomy literature for star names, and researching etymologies with the goal of adding this information to the WGSN’s online materials.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF (Full Thesis)
    Unambiguous Black Hole Mass from Polarimetry and Application to Hot Jupiters Dissertation by Sloane J. Wiktorowicz In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 2009 (Defended July 28, 2008) ii c 2009 Sloane J. Wiktorowicz All Rights Reserved iii This dissertation is dedicated to my wife Sharon, who has stood by my side and supported me while writing. I also dedicate this work to my family, who have encouraged me to pursue my love of the stars and whose advice and support through the years have been essential. iv v Acknowledgements Many thanks go to Keith Matthews, whose help and advice have been essential in construction of my instrument. I would like to thank Michael Ireland and Ian McEwan for valuable discussions on instrumentation, polarimetry, and signal processing. I appreciate the help of the Palomar Obser- vatory staff, especially Bruce Baker, Karl Dunscombe, John Henning, Greg van Idsinga, and Steve Kunsman. Without their help, this instrument would literally not have gotten off the ground. I thank Shri Kulkarni, who inspired me to pursue instrumentation. I acknowledge David Stevenson for a valuable debate regarding condensation in a water-hydrogen mixture and Conner Wiktorowicz for his help in determining uncertainty along the photospheric adiabat. I would like to acknowledge funding from the Moore Foundation. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. vi vii Abstract A novel technique for detecting light scattered by extrasolar planets is presented that has the poten- tial to constrain orbital inclination and planet mass.
    [Show full text]
  • Doctor of Philosophy
    Study of Sun-like G Stars and Their Exoplanets Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Mr. SHASHANKA R. GURUMATH May, 2019 ABSTRACT By employing exoplanetary physical and orbital characteristics, aim of this study is to understand the genesis, dynamics, chemical abundance and magnetic field structure of Sun-like G stars and relationship with their planets. With reasonable constraints on selection of exoplanetary physical characteristics, and by making corrections for stellar rate of mass loss, a power law relationship between initial stellar mass and their exo- planetary mass is obtained that suggests massive stars harbor massive planets. Such a power law relationship is exploited to estimate the initial mass (1.060±0.006) M of the Sun for possible solution of “Faint young Sun paradox” which indeed indicates slightly higher mass compared to present mass. Another unsolved puzzle of solar system is angular momentum problem, viz., compare to Sun most of the angular momentum is concentrated in the solar system planets. By analyzing the exoplanetary data, this study shows that orbital angular momentum of Solar system planets is higher compared to orbital angular momentum of exoplanets. This study also supports the results of Nice and Grand Tack models that propose the idea of outward migration of Jovian planets during early history of Solar system formation. Furthermore, we have examined the influence of stellar metallicity on the host stars mass and exoplanetary physical and orbital characteristics that shows a non-linear relationship. Another important result is most of the planets in single planetary stellar systems are captured from the space and/or inward migration of planets might have played a dominant role in the final architecture of single planetary stellar systems.
    [Show full text]
  • Serpens – the Serpent
    A JPL Image of surface of Mars, and JPL Ingenuity Helicioptor illustration, in flight Monthly Meeting May 10th at 7:00 PM at HRPO, and via Jitsi (Monthly meetings are on 2nd Mondays at Highland Road Park Observatory, will also broadcast via. (meet.jit.si/BRASMeet). PRESENTATION: Dr. Alan Hale, professional astronomer and co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, among other endeavors. What's In This Issue? President’s Message Member Meeting Minutes Business Meeting Minutes Outreach Report Light Pollution Committee Report Globe at Night SubReddit and Discord Messages from the HRPO REMOTE DISCUSSION Solar Viewing International Astronomy Day American Radio Relay League Field Day Observing Notes: Serpens - The Serpent & Mythology Like this newsletter? See PAST ISSUES online back to 2009 Visit us on Facebook – Baton Rouge Astronomical Society BRAS YouTube Channel Baton Rouge Astronomical Society Newsletter, Night Visions Page 2 of 20 May 2021 President’s Message Ahhh, welcome to May, the last pleasant month in Louisiana before the start of the hurricane season and the brutal summer months that follow. April flew by pretty quickly, and with the world slowly thawing from the long winter, why shouldn’t it? To celebrate, we decided we’re going to try to start holding our monthly meetings at Highland Road Park Observatory again, only with the added twist of incorporating an on-line component for those who for whatever reason don’t feel like making it out. To that end, we’ll have both our usual live broadcast on the BRAS YouTube channel and the Brasmeet page on Jitsi—which is where our out of town guests and, at least this month, our guest speaker can join us.
    [Show full text]
  • Determining the True Mass of Radial-Velocity Exoplanets with Gaia 9 Planet Candidates in the Brown-Dwarf/Stellar Regime and 27 Confirmed Planets
    Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. exoplanet_mass_gaia c ESO 2020 September 30, 2020 Determining the true mass of radial-velocity exoplanets with Gaia 9 planet candidates in the brown-dwarf/stellar regime and 27 confirmed planets F. Kiefer1; 2, G. Hébrard1; 3, A. Lecavelier des Etangs1, E. Martioli1; 4, S. Dalal1, and A. Vidal-Madjar1 1 Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7095, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France 2 LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France? 3 Observatoire de Haute-Provence, CNRS, Universiteé d’Aix-Marseille, 04870 Saint-Michel-l’Observatoire, France 4 Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, Rua Estados Unidos 154, 37504-364, Itajubá - MG, Brazil Submitted on 2020/08/20 ; Accepted for publication on 2020/09/24 ABSTRACT Mass is one of the most important parameters for determining the true nature of an astronomical object. Yet, many published exoplan- ets lack a measurement of their true mass, in particular those detected thanks to radial velocity (RV) variations of their host star. For those, only the minimum mass, or m sin i, is known, owing to the insensitivity of RVs to the inclination of the detected orbit compared to the plane-of-the-sky. The mass that is given in database is generally that of an assumed edge-on system (∼90◦), but many other inclinations are possible, even extreme values closer to 0◦ (face-on). In such case, the mass of the published object could be strongly underestimated by up to two orders of magnitude.
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence for Enhanced Chromospheric Ca II H and K Emission in Stars with Close-In Extrasolar Planets
    A&A 540, A82 (2012) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201118247 & c ESO 2012 Astrophysics Evidence for enhanced chromospheric Ca II H and K emission in stars with close-in extrasolar planets T. Krejcovᡠ1 and J. Budaj2 1 Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Masaryk University, Kotlárskᡠ2, 61137 Brno, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] 2 Astronomical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 05960 Tatranská Lomnica, Slovak Republic e-mail: [email protected] Received 11 October 2011 / Accepted 13 February 2012 ABSTRACT Context. The planet-star interaction is manifested in many ways. It has been found that a close-in exoplanet causes small but mea- surable variability in the cores of a few lines in the spectra of several stars, which corresponds to the orbital period of the exoplanet. Stars with and without exoplanets may have different properties. Aims. The main goal of our study is to search for the influence that exoplanets might have on atmospheres of their host stars. Unlike the previous studies, we do not study changes in the spectrum of a host star or differences between stars with and without exoplanets. We aim to study a large number of stars with exoplanets and the current level of their chromospheric activity and to look for a possible correlation with the exoplanetary properties. Methods. To analyse the chromospheric activity of stars, we exploited our own and publicly available archival spectra, measured the equivalent widths of the cores of Ca II H and K lines, and used them to trace their activity. Subsequently, we searched for their dependence on the orbital parameters and the mass of the exoplanet.
    [Show full text]
  • The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 208:2 (16Pp), 2013 September Doi:10.1088/0067-0049/208/1/2 C 2013
    The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 208:2 (16pp), 2013 September doi:10.1088/0067-0049/208/1/2 C 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. FOREVER ALONE? TESTING SINGLE ECCENTRIC PLANETARY SYSTEMS FOR MULTIPLE COMPANIONS Robert A. Wittenmyer1, Songhu Wang2, Jonathan Horner1,C.G.Tinney1, R. P. Butler3, H. R. A. Jones4, S. J. O’Toole5, J. Bailey1, B. D. Carter6, G. S. Salter1, D. Wright1, and Ji-Lin Zhou2 1 Department of Astrophysics, School of Physics, Faculty of Science, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; [email protected] 2 Department of Astronomy and Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics in Ministry of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China 3 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015-1305, USA 4 University of Hertfordshire, Centre for Astrophysics Research, Science and Technology Research Institute, College Lane, AL10 9AB Hatfield, UK 5 Australian Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia 6 Faculty of Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia Received 2013 March 12; accepted 2013 July 2; published 2013 August 22 ABSTRACT Determining the orbital eccentricity of an extrasolar planet is critically important for understanding the system’s dynamical environment and history. However, eccentricity is often poorly determined or entirely mischaracterized due to poor observational sampling, low signal-to-noise, and/or degeneracies with other planetary signals. Some systems previously thought to contain a single, moderate-eccentricity planet have been shown, after further monitoring, to host two planets on nearly circular orbits.
    [Show full text]
  • IAU WGSN 2019 Annual Report
    IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names 2019 Annual Report Eric Mamajek (chair, USA) WG Members: Juan Antonio Belmote Avilés (Spain), Sze-leung Cheung (Thailand), Beatriz García (Argentina), Steven Gullberg (USA), Duane Hamacher (Australia), Susanne M. Hoffmann (Germany), Alejandro López (Argentina), Javier Mejuto (Honduras), Thierry Montmerle (France), Jay Pasachoff (USA), Ian Ridpath (UK), Clive Ruggles (UK), B.S. Shylaja (India), Robert van Gent (Netherlands), Hitoshi Yamaoka (Japan) WG Associates: Danielle Adams (USA), Yunli Shi (China), Doris Vickers (Austria) WGSN Website: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/ WGSN Email: [email protected] The Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) consists of an international group of astronomers with expertise in stellar astronomy, astronomical history, and cultural astronomy who research and catalog proper names for stars for use by the international astronomical community, and also to aid the recognition and preservation of intangible astronomical heritage. The Terms of Reference and membership for WG Star Names (WGSN) are provided at the IAU website: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/. WGSN was re-proposed to Division C and was approved in April 2019 as a functional WG whose scope extends beyond the normal 3-year cycle of IAU working groups. The WGSN was specifically called out on p. 22 of IAU Strategic Plan 2020-2030: “The IAU serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and their surface features. To do so, the IAU has a number of Working Groups on various topics, most notably on the nomenclature of small bodies in the Solar System and planetary systems under Division F and on Star Names under Division C.” WGSN continues its long term activity of researching cultural astronomy literature for star names, and researching etymologies with the goal of adding this information to the WGSN’s online materials.
    [Show full text]