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Results for “ab initio phasing”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

High-Temperature Thermodynamics of Uranium from Ab Initio Modeling

We present high-temperature thermodynamic properties for uranium in its γ phase (γ-U) from first-principles, relativistic, and anharmonic theory. The results are compared to CALPHAD modeling. The ab initio electronic structure is obtained from density-functional theory (DFT) that includes spin–orbit coupling and an added self-consistent orbital-polarization (OP) mechanism for more accurate treatment of magnetism. The first-principles method is coupled to a lattice dynamics scheme that is used to model anharmonic lattice vibrations, namely, Self-Consistent Ab Initio Lattice Dynamics (SCAILD). The methodology can be summarized in the acronym DFT + OP + SCAILD. Upon thermal expansion, γ-U develops non-negligible magnetic moments that are included for the first time in thermodynamic theory. The all-electron DFT approach is shown to model γ-U better than the commonly used pseudopotential method. In addition to CALPHAD, DFT + OP + SCAILD thermodynamic properties are compared with other ab initio and semiempirical modeling and experiments. Our first-principles approach produces Gibbs free energy that is essentially identical to CALPHAD. The DFT + OP + SCAILD heat capacity is close to CALPHAD and most experimental data and is predicted to have a significant thermal dependence due to the electronic contribution.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ab initio simulations on the pure Cr lattice stability at 0K: Verification with the Fe-Cr and Ni-Cr binary systems

Significant discrepancies have been observed and discussed on the lattice stability of Cr between the predictions from the ab initio calculations and the CALPHAD approach. In the current work, we carefully examined the possible structures for pure Cr and reviewed the history back from how Kaufman originally determined the Gibbs energy of FCC-Cr in the 1970s. The reliability of Cr lattice stability derived by the CALPHAD and ab initio approaches was systematically discussed. It is concluded that the Cr lattice stability based on the CALPHAD approach has large uncertainty. Meanwhile, we cannot claim that the ab initio H FCC-Cr is error-free as FCC-Cr is an unstable phase under ambient conditions. The present work shows that the ab initio HFCC-Cr can be a viable scientific approach. As both approaches have their limitations, the present work propose to integrate the ab initio results into the CALPHAD platform for the development of the next generation CALPHAD database. As a result, the Fe-Cr and Ni-Cr binary systems were chosen as two case studies demonstrating the capability to adopt the ab initio Cr lattice stability directly into the current CALPHAD database framework.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

First-principles study of the low-temperature charge density wave phase in the quasi-one-dimensional Weyl chiral compound ( TaSe 4 ) 2 I

Using ab initio density functional theory, we study herein the lattice phase transition of quasi-one-dimensional (TaSe 4 ) 2 I. In the undistorted state, the strongly anisotropic semimetal band structure presents two nonequivalent Weyl points. In previous efforts, two possible Ta-tetramerization patterns were proposed to be associated with the low-temperature structure. Our phonon calculations indicate that the orthorhombic F222 CDW-I phase is the most likely ground state for this quasi-one-dimensional system. In addition, the monoclinic C2 CDW-II phase may also be stable according to the phonon dispersion spectrum. Since these two phases have very similar energies in our density functional theory calculations, both these Ta-tetramerization distortions likely compete or coexist at low temperatures. The semimetal-to-insulator transition is induced by a Fermi-surface-driven instability that supports the Peierls scenario, which affects the Weyl physics developed above T CDW . Furthermore, the spin-orbit coupling generates Rashba-like band splittings in the insulating charge density wave phases.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Visualizing interfacial collective reaction behaviour of Li–S batteries

Benefiting from high energy density (2,600 Wh kg -1 )) and low cost, lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are considered promising candidates for advanced energy-storage systems. Despite tremendous efforts in suppressing the long-standing shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides, understanding of the interfacial reactions of lithium polysulfides at the nanoscale remains elusive. This is mainly because of the limitations of in situ characterization tools in tracing the liquid-solid conversion of unstable lithium polysulfides at high temporal-spatial resolution. There is an urgent need to understand the coupled phenomena inside Li-S batteries, specifically, the dynamic distribution, aggregation, deposition and dissolution of lithium polysulfides. Here, by using in situ liquid-cell electrochemical transmission electron microscopy, we directly visualized the transformation of lithium polysulfides over electrode surfaces at the atomic scale. Notably, an unexpected gathering-induced collective charge transfer of lithium polysulfides was captured on the nanocluster active-centre-immobilized surface. It further induced an instantaneous deposition of nonequilibrium Li2S nanocrystals from the dense liquid phase of lithium polysulfides. Without mediation of active centres, the reactions followed a classical single-molecule pathway, lithium polysulfides transforming into Li 2 S 2 and Li 2 S step by step. Molecular dynamics simulations indicated that the long-range electrostatic interaction between active centres and lithium polysulfides promoted the formation of a dense phase consisting of Li + and S n 2- (2 < n ≤ 6), and the collective charge transfer in the dense phase was further verified by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Finally, the collective interfacial reaction pathway unveils a new transformation mechanism and deepens the fundamental understanding of Li-S batteries.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ground State Properties of the Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Beryllium Sulfide (BeS)

We report the results from self-consistent calculations of electronic, transport, and bulk properties of beryllium sulfide (BeS) in the zinc-blende phase, and employed an ab-initio local density approximation (LDA) potential and the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO). We obtained the ground state properties of zb-BeS with the Bagayoko, Zhao, and Williams (BZW) computational method, as enhanced by Ekuma and Franklin (BZW-EF). Our findings include the electronic energy bands, the total (DOS) and partial (pDOS) densities of states, electron and hole effective masses, the equilibrium lattice constant, and the bulk modulus. The calculated band structure clearly shows that zb-BeS has an indirect energy band gap of 5.436 eV, from Γ to a point between Γ and X, for an experimental lattice constant of 4.863 Å. This is in excellent agreement with the experiment, unlike the findings of more than 15 previous density functional theory (DFT) calculations that did not perform the generalized minimization of the energy functional, required by the second DFT theorem, which is inherent to the implementation of our BZW-EF method.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1996

Why HOC+ is detectable in interstellar clouds: the rate of the reaction between HOC+ and H2

The recent confirmation by Ziurys and Apponi of the detection of HOC+ toward Sgr B2 (OH), and their identification of the ion in Orion-KL and several other sources show that HOC+ is far more abundant than predicted by previous ion-molecule models. In these models, the reaction HOC(+) + H2 --> HCO(+) + H2 is assumed to rapidly destroy HOC+, based on the results of a prior calculation. We have recalculated the rate of this reaction as a function of temperature using a new ab initio potential surface and a phase space approach to the dynamics which includes tunneling. The newly calculated rate is small (< or = 1 x 10(-10) cm3 s-1) at temperatures under 100 K.

Non-NASA Center↗
DOE OSTI2020

Superconducting properties of MoTe 2 from ab initio anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg theory

Molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe 2 ) is attracting considerable interest since it is the archetypal type-II Weyl semimetal and a candidate for topological superconductivity. In this work, we investigate the superconducting phase diagram of two MoTe 2 polymorphs using the ab initio anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg theory, and we show that the superconducting dome originates from the synergistic contribution of the density of states at the Fermi level and the transverse acoustic Te modes in the 1$\textit{T}’$ phase. We find that the electron and hole pockets carry trivial $\textit{s}$-wave order parameters of slightly different magnitude, reminiscent of a two-gap structure as suggested by recent experiments. We suggest that a possible route for enhancing the superconducting critical temperature, and realizing $s_{+ –}$ pairing, in the $T_d$ phase is to exploit its nontrivial band topology via electron doping.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Reversible hydrogen storage in multilayer graphane: Lattice dynamics, compressibility, and heat capacity studies

Multilayer graphane (hydride of graphite) is a crystalline hydrocarbon of composition CH, which can be synthesized from graphite and molecular hydrogen at pressures above 2GPa [V.E. Antonov et al. Carbon 100 (2016) 465]. Using X-ray diffraction, this compound was tentatively identified as the “graphane II” phase of 3D-graphane predicted by ab initio calculations [X.-D. Wen et al. PNAS 108 (2011) 6833] and consisting of layers of 2D-graphane in the “chair” conformation. When heated in a vacuum, the compound does not form any intermediate hydrocarbons and reversibly decomposes back into graphite and hydrogen at 770–920 K. In the present work, almost single-phase samples of graphite hydride and deuteride were synthesized at 7.4 GPa and 870 K. Their investigation by inelastic neutron scattering supplemented by ab initio calculations gave spectra g(E) of the phonon density of states with a gap of about 15 meV at approx. 100 meV, which is a unique identifier for the chair form of graphane. The equation of state V(P) of the hydride was studied at room temperature and hydrogen pressures up to 53 GPa by synchrotron X-ray diffraction in a diamond anvil cell. Further, the graphane II phase did not react with the surrounding hydrogen and did not undergo any phase transformations upon the compression and after heating to 1500 K at 53GPa. The high thermal and pressure stability of this exotic phase makes it an important part of the C–H system. The obtained g(E) spectra of graphite hydride and deuteride were used to calculate temperature dependences of their heat capacity. Measurements of the heat capacity at temperatures 120–673 K confirmed the good accuracy of these calculations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Observed metallization of hydrogen interpreted as a band structure effect

A recent experimental study of the metallization of hydrogen tracked the direct band gap and vibron frequency via infrared measurements up to ~425 GPa (Loubeyre et al (2020 Nature 577 631). Above this pressure, the direct gap has a discontinuous drop to below the minimum experimentally accessible energy (~0.1 eV). The authors suggested that this observation is caused by a structural phase transition between the C2/c-24 molecular phase to another molecular phase such as Cmca-12. Here, through ab initio calculations of pressure dependent vibron frequency and direct band gap, we find that the experimental data is consistent with the C2/c-24 phase up to 425 GPa, and suggest that this consistency extends beyond that pressure. Specifically, we find that qualitative changes in the band structure of the C2/c-24 phase lead to a discontinuous drop of the direct band gap, which can explain the observed drop without a structural transition. In conclusion, this alternative scenario, which naturally explains the absence of hysteresis in the measurements, will hopefully motivate further experimental studies to ascertain the structure of the phase above the high pressure 'phase transition'.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Atomic-Scale Dynamic Interaction of H 2 O Molecules with Cu Surface

Atomic-scale interaction of water vapor with metal surfaces beyond surface adsorption under technologically relevant conditions remains mostly unexplored. Using aberration-corrected environmental transmission electron microscopy, we reveal the dynamic surface activation of Cu by H 2 O at elevated temperature and pressure. In this study, we find a structural transition from flat to corrugated surface for the Cu(011) under low water-vapor pressure. Increasing the water-vapor pressure leads to the surface reaction of Cu with dissociated H 2 O, resulting in the formation of a metastable “bilayer” Cu-O-H phase. Corroborated by density functional theory and ab initio molecular dynamics calculations, the cooperative O and OH interaction with Cu is responsible for the formation and subsurface propagation of this phase.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Using Neural Network Force Fields to Ascertain the Quality of Ab Initio Simulations of Liquid Water

Accurately simulating the properties of bulk water, despite the apparent simplicity of the molecule, is still a challenge. In order to fully understand and reproduce its complex phase diagram, it is necessary to perform simulations at the ab initio level, including quantum mechanical effects both for electrons and nuclei. This comes at a high computational cost, given that the structural and dynamical properties tend to require long timescales and large simulation cells. In this work, we evaluate the errors that density functional theory (DFT)-based simulations routinely incur into due time- and size-scale limitations. These errors are evaluated using neural-network-trained force fields that are accurate at the level of DFT methods. We compare different exchange and correlation potentials for properties of bulk water that require large timescales. Here we show that structural properties are less dependent on the system size and that dynamical properties such as the diffusion coefficient have a strong dependence on the simulation size and timescale. Our results facilitate comparisons of DFT-based simulation results with experiments and offer a path to discriminate between model and convergence errors in these simulations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Pressure-Induced Enhancement of Thermoelectric Figure of Merit and Structural Phase Transition in TiNiSn

Half-Heusler thermoelectric materials are potential candidates for high thermoelectric efficiency. Here, we report high-pressure thermoelectric and structural property measurements, density functional theory calculations on the half-Heusler material TiNiSn, and an increase of 15% in the relative dimensionless figure of merit, ZT, around 3 GPa. Thermal and electrical properties were measured utilizing a specialized sample cell assembly designed for the Paris–Edinburgh large-volume press to a maximum pressure of 3.5 GPa. High-pressure structural measurements performed up to 50 GPa in a diamond-anvil cell indicated the emergence of a new high-pressure phase around 20 GPa. A first-principles structure search performed using an ab initio random structure search approach identified the high-pressure phase as an orthorhombic type, in good agreement with the experimental results.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Orbital-selective Peierls phase in the metallic dimerized chain MoOCl 2

Using ab initio density functional theory, here we systematically study the monolayer MoOCl 2 with a 4 d 2 electronic configuration. Our main result is that an orbital-selective Peierls phase (OSPP) develops in MoOCl 2 , resulting in the dimerization of the Mo chain along the b axis. Specifically, the Mo- d x y orbitals form robust molecular-orbital states inducing localized d x y singlet dimers, while the Mo- d x z / y z orbitals remain delocalized and itinerant. Our study shows that MoOCl 2 is globally metallic, with the Mo- d x y orbital bonding-antibonding splittings opening a gap and the Mo- d x z / y z orbitals contributing to the metallic conductivity. Overall, the results resemble the recently much discussed orbital-selective Mott phase but with the localized band induced by a Peierls distortion instead of Hubbard interactions. Finally, we also qualitatively discuss the possibility of OSPP in the 3 d 2 configuration, as in CrOCl 2 .

1-dimensional systems↗
DOE OSTI2023

Applying Bayesian inference and deterministic anisotropy to retrieve the molecular structure ∣Ψ(R)∣2 distribution from gas-phase diffraction experiments

Abstract Currently, our general approach to retrieving molecular structures from ultrafast gas-phase diffraction heavily relies on complex ab initio electronic or vibrational excited state simulations to make conclusive interpretations. Without such simulations, inverting this measurement for the structural probability distribution is typically intractable. This creates a so-called inverse problem. Here we address this inverse problem by developing a broadly applicable method that approximates the molecular frame structure ∣Ψ( R , t )∣ 2 distribution independent of these complex simulations. We retrieve the vibronic ground state ∣Ψ( R )∣ 2 for both simulated stretched NO 2 and measured N 2 O. From measured N 2 O, we observe 40 mÅ coordinate-space resolution from 3.75 Å −1 reciprocal space range and poor signal-to-noise, a 50X improvement over traditional Fourier transform methods. In simulated NO 2 diffraction experiments, typical to high signal-to-noise levels predict 100–1000X resolution improvements, down to 0.1 mÅ. By directly measuring the width of ∣Ψ( R )∣ 2 , we open ultrafast gas-phase diffraction capabilities to measurements beyond current analysis approaches. This method has the potential to effectively turn gas-phase ultrafast diffraction into a discovery-oriented technique to probe systems that are prohibitively difficult to simulate.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Surface science of shape-selective metal nanocrystal synthesis from first-principles: Growth of Cu nanowires and nanocubes

The authors present results from first-principles density functional theory aimed at understanding the aqueous solution-phase growth of fivefold twinned copper nanowires and single-crystal nanocubes capped by hexadecylamine (HDA). The role of solution-phase chloride, present in the Cu salt or as an additive, is emphasized. Using ab initio thermodynamics, the authors delineate the range of solution-phase conditions, characterized by the chemical potentials of chloride and HDA, under which Cu nanowires and nanocubes can be grown. The authors discuss the likelihood of thermodynamic and/or kinetic nanostructures for various solution-phase concentrations. Their results are in good agreement with experiments and indicate that methods and insights developed for surface science in gas-phase or vacuum conditions can yield much insight into liquid-phase systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Thermodynamic modeling of the Nb-Ni system with uncertainty quantification using PyCalphad and ESPEI

Here, the Nb–Ni system is remodeled with uncertainty quantification (UQ) using software tools of PyCalphad and ESPEI (the Extensible, Self-optimizing Phase Equilibria Infrastructure) with the presently implemented capability of modeling site fraction based on Wyckoff positions. The five- and three-sublattice models are used to model the topologically close pack (TCP) μ-Nb 7 Ni 6 and δ-NbNi 3 phases according to their Wyckoff positions. The inputs for CALPHAD-based thermodynamic modeling include the thermochemical data as a function of temperature predicted by first-principles and phonon calculations based on density functional theory (DFT), ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations, together with phase equilibrium and site fraction data in the literature. In addition to phase diagram and thermodynamic properties, the CALPHAD-based predictions of site fractions of Nb in μ-Nb 7 Ni 6 agree well with experimental data. Furthermore, the UQ estimation using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method as implemented in ESPEI is applied to study the uncertainty of site fraction in μ-Nb 7 Ni 6 and enthalpy of mixing (ΔH mix ) in liquid.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Experimental and Modeling Review of the Plutonium-Zirconium (Pu-Zr) System: Lost in Translation and Over Time?

This article presents a review of the phase equilibria of the Pu-Zr system and discusses the contradictory reports on the experimental phase diagram and misinterpretations that have led to confusion over time. In addition, a review of the few Pu-Zr CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagrams) assessments is presented with emphasis on the heat of formation of the bcc phase, highlighting a disagreement between CALPHAD and ab initio calculations. Based on the information gathered in this study, a critical re-assessment of the Pu-Zr system involving the ζ (Pu 28 Zr), θ (Pu 4 Zr), kinetically hindered κ (PuZr 2 ), and once observed ι phases is called for.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗