Paulo Brant Carvalho

I hold a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Sao Paulo, an 8-semester’s program with a solid and diversified curriculum in the several aspects of the field and in particular in analytical chemistry, spectroscopy and its applications. I have concluded a Masters in the Advanced Spectroscopy in Chemistry European Program, a 2-year program hosted at two renowned universities in Europe, University Lille 1 and the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. I chose the identification of Lewis acid sites formed on zeolites during the dehydration process as the topic of my master thesis, for which I got to perform density functional theory (DFT) calculations and modelling of those Lewis acid sites, followed by the generation of theoretical x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra for further interpretation of the experimental data.

My PhD project is on the exploration of pressure-induced amorphisation and glassy states of clathrate hydrates (CHs). CHs are icy structures water forms with polyhedral cages enclosing small concentrations of guest molecules under extreme conditions. They occur in nature in the deep sea floor sediments and may be present on the surface of celestial bodies like Titan, one of Saturn’s satellites. For that, CHs have important industrial and environmental applications. Neutron scattering is applied on the scanning process of the different phase transitions, giving rise to valuable information on the fundamental aspects of CHs and ices and providing insight into water-guest hydrophobic interactions and proxy systems for probing water’s anomalous properties at low temperatures and high pressures.

University: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Thesis title: Pressure-Induced Amorphization and Distinct Amorphous States of Clathrate Hydrates

Publications

Vibrational properties of SrVO2H with large spin-phonon coupling.  R. Lavén, P.I.R. Moraes, M.S. Targama, M. Karlsson, A.A. Leitão, P.H.B. Brant Carvalho, S.F. Parker, U. Häussermann, and O.Y. Vekilova. Physical Review Materials (2022). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.024409

Exploring High-Pressure Transformations in Low-Z (H2, Ne) Hydrates at Low Temperatures.  P.H.B. Brant Carvalho, A. Mace, I.M. Nangoi, A.A. Leitão, C.A. Tulk, J.J. Molaison, O. Andersson, A.P. Lyubartsev, and U. Häussermann, Crystals 12 (1), 9 (2022); https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12010009

In Situ Inelastic Neutron Scattering of Mixed Ch4–Co2 Hydrates. B.R. Cladek, A.J. Ramirez-Cuesta, S. Michelle Everett, M.T. McDonell, L.Daemen, Y. Cheng, P.H.B Brant Carvalho, C. Tulk, M.G. Tucker, D.J. Keffer, C.J. Rawn. Situ Inelastic Neutron Scattering of Mixed Ch4–Co2 Hydrates (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.125197

Evidence suggesting kinetic unfreezing of water mobility in two distinct processes in pressure-amorphized clathrate hydrates. O. Andersson, P.H.B. Brant Carvalho, U. Häusserman, Y-J. Hsu. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (2022). https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CP01993K

Pressure-induced amorphization of noble gas clathrate hydrates.  P.H.B. Brant Carvalho, A. Mace, O. Andersson, C.A. Tulk, J. Molaison, A.P. Lyubartsev, I. M. Nangoi, A.A. Leitao, U. Häussermann, Physical Review B 103, 6, 064205 (2021); http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.064205

Structural investigation of three distinct amorphous forms of Ar hydrate. P.H.B. Brant Carvalho, P.I.R. Moraes, A.A. Leitão, O. Andersson, C.A. Tulk, J.J. Molaison, A.P. Lyubartsev, and U. Häussermann, RSC Advances 11 (49), 30744-30754 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1039/D1RA05697B

Elucidating the guest disorder in structure II argon hydrate – A neutron diffraction isotopic substitution study.  P.H.B. Brant Carvalho, A. Mace, O. Andersson, C.A. Tulk, J. Molaison, and U. Häussermann, “Elucidating the guest disorder in structure II argon hydrate – A neutron diffraction isotopic substitution study,” J. Solid State Chem., vol. 285, p. 121220, May 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2020.121220

Layered Zinc Hydroxide Dihydrate, Zn5(OH)10·2H2O, from Hydrothermal Conversion of ε-Zn(OH)2 at Gigapascal Pressures and its Transformation to Nanocrystalline ZnOA. Gordeeva, Y.J. Hsu, I.Z. Jenei, P.H.B. Brant Carvalho, S. I. Simak, O. Andersson, U. Häussermann, ACS Omega, vol. 5, no. 28. p. 17617-17627, Jul. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c02075

Transitions in pressure-amorphized clathrate hydrates akin to those of amorphous ices. Andersson, P.H.B.B. Carvalho, Y.J. Hsu, and U. Häussermann, J. Chem. Phys., vol. 151, no. 1, p. 014502, Jul. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5096981

Elucidation of the pressure induced amorphization of tetrahydrofuran clathrate hydrate.  P.H.B. Brant Carvalho, A. Mace, C.L. Bull, N.P. Funnell, C.A. Tulk, O. Andersson, U. Häussermann, J. Chem. Phys., vol. 150, no. 20, p. 204506, May 2019, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5083958