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Substitutional and interstitial doping in LaCo5 system for the development of hard magnetic properties: A first principles study
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Be₂C as a neutron moderator for molten salt reactors: A first-principles study of structural, electronic, and defect properties
Beryllium carbide (Be 2 C), valued for its high neutron moderation efficiency and low absorption cross section, is a promising high-temperature neutron moderator for molten salt reactors. Its practical adoption, however, demands significant technological maturation, requiring comprehensive theoretical and experimental studies of its response to different conditions, including high temperature and irradiation. Here, we report initial results on the fundamental properties and radiation-induced defects of Be 2 C, focusing on antisites, vacancies, interstitial atoms, and Frenkel pairs in the Be and C sublattices. Using density functional theory (DFT) and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD), we calculate the defects formation and binding energies, evaluating their dependence on the supercell size, charge states, and chemical environment. In general, carbon defects exhibit higher formation energies, greater sensitivity to cell size, and stronger impacts on the density of states compared to beryllium defects, with charged state the effects being more pronounced. Static DFT reveals multiple metastable interstitial configurations, while AIMD identifies ground states as C-C <100> dumbbells and octahedral Be interstitials. In conclusion, the diversity of metastable configurations and defect states complicates the diffusion mechanisms, requiring further molecular dynamics analysis to elucidate the mechanisms and rates of radiation-induced atomic transport, as well as the structural stability of Be2C.
A first principles analysis of the hydrogenation of C1C4 aldehydes and ketones over Ru(0001)
The structure and degree of substitution of C₁–C₄ oxygenate molecules can influence their chemisorption and reactivity on metal surfaces. Gradient-corrected periodic density functional theory calculations were carried out to analyze alkyl substituent effects on the hydrogenation of C₁–C₄ aldehydes and ketones to their corresponding alcohols. All of these aldehydes along with acetone were found to adsorb in a di-ση1η2(C,O) mode onto the Ru(0001) surface and result in rehybridization of the C=O bond. Steric hindrance from two alkyl substituents on the carbonyl backbone of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), however, prevents it from binding di-ση1η2(C,O). It adsorbs instead atop a Ru atom in an g1(O) configuration through its oxygen atom. Hydrogenation of both aldehydes and ketones can occur through either a hydroxy or an alkoxy mechanism. The hydroxy route proceeds via the formation of the hydroxyalkyl intermediate R₁R₂C*OH by the addition of hydrogen to the oxygen of the carbonyl, whereas the alkoxy mechanism proceeds by the addition of hydrogen to the carbon end to form the alkoxy intermediate R₂CHO*). DFT calculations indicate that the activation barrier for the initial addition of hydrogen to the carbon to form the C–H bond in the alkoxy mechanism is independent of the substituent groups that are attached to the carbon center as these groups are oriented away from the surface in the transition state and thus have little influence on the activation energies. The activation barriers for the addition of hydrogen to the oxygen of the carbonyl to form the O–H bond in the hydroxy mechanism, however, was found to linearly correlate with the binding energy of the hydroxyalkyl intermediate that forms. This trend can be explained through the Brønsted–Evans–Polanyi relationship and the fact that both the hydroxyalkyl products and carbonyl reactants interact via their carbon centers and are correlated with one another. All of the carbonyls follow a similar trend in that the addition of hydrogen to the carbon of the carbonyl has a much lower barrier on Ru(0001) than the addition of hydrogen to the oxygen. The carbonyls thus readily react to form their alkoxy intermediates. Simple kinetic analyses and firstprinciple- based kinetic Monte Carlo simulations for formaldehyde over Ru(0001) show that the alkoxy is the most abundant surface intermediate and that the alkoxy route is more favorable than the hydroxy route.
First principles, microkinetic, and experimental analysis of Lewis acid site speciation during ethanol dehydration on Sn-Beta zeolites
Density functional theory calculations are combined with kinetic measurements of ethanol dehydration to diethyl ether to identify the relative catalytic contributions of structurally distinct speciations of Sn sites in zeolite Beta frameworks. The structural complexities of the Beta framework require nonstandard techniques for entropy and energy calculations, including consideration of anharmonic effects in vibrational modes, employment of quasi-harmonic densities of states methods to evaluate entropies, and use of hybrid density functionals to evaluate binding energies. Calculated energies and entropies are used to construct a microkinetic model that is iteratively refined to identify all kinetically and thermodynamically sensitive reaction steps and intermediates which are subsequently treated with the higher-level methods. The rate and equilibrium constants obtained from this tiered approach agree well with measured reaction orders in ethanol and water. Site balances provide evidence for the interconversion of Sn sites between “closed” configurations that are tetra-coordinated to the framework, open configurations formed by hydrolysis that are tri-coordinated to the framework and contain a hydroxyl ligand and proximal silanol group (“hydroxy-open”), and open tri-coordinate configurations formed by reaction with ethanol, yielding an ethoxy ligand and proximal silanol group (“ethoxy-open”). Closed, hydroxy-open, and ethoxy-open Sn sites adsorb ethanol via distinct modes and react via distinct pathways, with the consequence that prevalent dehydration pathways depend on the speciation of Sn sites under reaction conditions. The kinetic modeling indicates that, under the conditions studied (404 K, 0.5–35 kPa ethanol, 0.1–50 kPa water), bimolecular dehydration on the closed Sn site is the sole kinetically-relevant step, and ethanol, ethanol-ethanol dimers, and ethanol-water dimers are the most abundant surface intermediates. In conclusion, these results highlight the importance of considering the distribution of heteroatom coordination modes to zeolite frameworks under reaction conditions, as well as pathways for their interconversion in the presence of reacting molecules, to obtain more robust mechanistic and kinetic interpretations of catalytic pathways in Lewis acid zeolites.
First principles micro-kinetic model of catalytic non-oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane over close-packed metallic facets
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Quantifying uncertainties in first-principles alloy thermodynamics using cluster expansions
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Spectroscopic and first-principles investigations of iodine species incorporation into ettringite: Implications for iodine migration in cement waste forms
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Decohesion models informed by first-principles calculations: The ab initio tensile test
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First Principles Calculations of the Structure and
This study analyzes structural and elastic propert
Activation energetics of actinide diffusion in UO2 from first-principles calculations
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