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Recent Developments in DFTB+, a Software Package for Efficient Atomistic Quantum Mechanical Simulations

DFTB+ is a flexible, open-source software package developed by its community, designed for fast and efficient atomistic quantum mechanical simulations. It employs various methods that approximate density functional theory (DFT), such as density functional-based tight binding (DFTB) and the extended tight binding (xTB) approach allowing simulations of large systems over extended time scales with reasonable accuracy, while being significantly faster than traditional ab initio methods. In recent years, several new extensions of the DFTB method have been developed and implemented in the DFTB+ program package in order to improve the accuracy and generality of the available simulation results. In this paper, we review those enhancements, show several use case examples and discuss the strengths and limitations of its features.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DFTB+, a software package for efficient approximate density functional theory based atomistic simulations

DFTB+ is a versatile community developed open source software package offering fast and efficient methods for carrying out atomistic quantum mechanical simulations. By implementing various methods approximating density functional theory (DFT), such as the density functional based tight binding (DFTB) and the extended tight binding method, it enables simulations of large systems and long timescales with reasonable accuracy while being considerably faster for typical simulations than the respective ab initio methods. Based on the DFTB framework, it additionally offers approximated versions of various DFT extensions including hybrid functionals, time dependent formalism for treating excited systems, electron transport using non-equilibrium Green’s functions, and many more. DFTB+ can be used as a user-friendly standalone application in addition to being embedded into other software packages as a library or acting as a calculation-server accessed by socket communication. We give an overview of the recently developed capabilities of the DFTB+ code, demonstrating with a few use case examples, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the various features, and also discuss on-going developments and possible future perspectives.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Protein Molecular Dynamics Simulations with Approximate QM: What Can We Learn?

Classical force fields are essential for computer simulations of proteins and are typically parameterized to reproduce secondary and tertiary structure of isolated proteins. However, while protein-protein interactions are ubiquitous in nature, they are not considered in parameterization efforts and are far less understood than isolated proteins. A better characterization of intermolecular interactions is widely recognized as a key to revolutionizing drug and therapeutic developments with high-throughput computational screening. Urgently needed is a critical assessment of the performance of modern protein force fields against first-principles electronic structure methods and experiments. In a daring step toward this goal, we here describe a comparison of peptide folding dynamics as predicted by a molecular mechanics force field on the one hand and by an approximate electronic structure quantum mechanical (QM) method based on density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) on the other. We further compare the dynamics from straightforward DFTB simulations with a near-linear scaling version of DFTB for massively parallel computation based on the fragment molecular orbital (FMO-DFTB) method. We illustrate differences between the phenomenology of the folding dynamics from these three methods for a small model peptide, as well as charge polarization and dynamic fluctuations, point out possible correlations and implications for force field developers, and discuss the lessons learned that might become applicable to future predictive high-throughput computer screening for personalized neoantigen cancer therapy.

Irle, Stephan↗

Non-Empirical and Self-Interaction Corrections for DFTB: Towards Accurate Quantum Simulations for Large Mesoscale Systems (Final Report)

This project was comprised of two complementary (but parallel) thrusts: (1) implementing massively-parallelized computing hardware (with new computational hardware that may replace GPUs) in the density functional tight binding (DFTB) approach and (2) developing new capabilities in DFTB to calculate the electronic structure and dynamics of large chemical systems. While classical molecular dynamics can handle hundreds of thousands of atoms, it cannot provide a first-principles based description of chemical systems at the quantum level. At the other extreme, conventional Kohn-Sham DFT methods can probe the true quantum mechanical nature of chemical systems; however, these methods cannot tackle the large sizes and length scales relevant to dynamics simulations of realistic systems. The DFTB formalism utilized in this project provides a viable approach for probing these large systems at a quantum mechanical level of detail. However, to utilize the DFTB approach for accurate calculations of electronic properties, it is crucial to incorporate quantum-based corrections in DFTB since exchange-correlation effects can still remain very strong in these large systems. At the same time, enhancing the computational efficiency of DFTB is also essential since optimal computational performance is required for addressing the large size scales associated with realistic chemical systems. As such, the new non-empirical corrections and computing hardware enhancements implemented in this project will enable accurate and computationally efficient approaches to directly probe electronic properties in these large, complex systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Density Functional Tight-Binding Simulations Reveal the Presence of Surface Defects on the Quartz (101)–Water Interface

Understanding the structure and reactivity of quartz–water interfaces is critical for numerous applications in the geological, environmental, and biological sciences. However, disagreements on the atomic-level structure of the interfaces between experiments and simulations are hampering our ability to predict the surface reactivity. Here, we used density functional tight-binding (DFTB)-based molecular dynamics to simulate a series of quartz (101) surfaces having different types and densities of surface defects in water and compared them with the structures determined by X-ray reflectivity measurements. The DFTB simulations are able to reproduce previous classical and quantum mechanical predictions of the pristine quartz (101)–water interface that disagree with experimental observations. To remedy this situation, a set of defective quartz surfaces having various surface silicon (Si) vacancies were built as indicated by recent experimental studies. We found that the rotation of surface [SiO 4 ] tetrahedra near Si vacancies can lead to outward displacements of Si atoms similar to those observed in the experiments. The presence of additional surface Si vacancies caused inward relaxations of terminal oxygens through the formation of hydrogen bonds. Finally, the overall results indicate that the quartz (101)–water interface may include a mixture of geminal (≡Si–(OH) 2 )- and vicinal (≡Si–OH)-type silanol groups together with the presence of surface Si vacancies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Acidities of MgO surface sites: implications for the formation mechanism of Mg(OH) 2

The hydroxylation of periclase (MgO) to brucite (Mg(OH) 2 ) is thought to be an important intermediate step when using MgO to capture CO 2 from the atmosphere. However, the mechanism of hydroxylation of MgO to form Mg(OH) 2 is poorly understood. In this work, we used atomic-scale density functional tight binding simulations coupled with the metadynamics rare event method to analyze the surface chemistry of MgO and the acid dissociation equilibrium constants (pK a ) of its surface sites. The method and parameters were validated by calculating the pK a for hydroxylation of the first shell water bound to aqueous Mg 2+ ion. The pK a value derived using a probabilistic method was 12.3, which is in fair agreement with the accepted value of 11.4, with the difference between them equal to a ∼5 kJ mol −1 error in the calculations. We then extended these pK a calculations to probe the hydroxylation reactions of the surface sites of the MgO(100)–water interface, arriving at pK a s of 5.4 to deprotonate terminal water molecules bound to the surface magnesium sites (η-OH 2 or 〉MgOH 2 ), and 13.9 to deprotonate hydroxylated bridging oxygen sites (μ 5 -oxo or 〉O). Hydroxide (OH − ) adsorption on the surface was also probed and found to be less thermodynamically favorable than deprotonation of the terminal water molecule. The plausibility of the computed pK a s was verified using an activity-based speciation model and compared to pH measurements of water equilibrated with MgO nanoparticles and single crystals. The model predicted a solution pH of 7.1 when surface sites buffered and the pH of 12.0 when MgO dissolution dominated. These are close to the experimental initial solution pHs of 7–7.5 and the long term pHs of ∼10.5. The similarity suggests that the calculated pK a values from the DFTB+/metadynamics simulations are plausible and that these methods can be a useful tool to probe reaction mechanisms involving covalent bonds.

Adapa, Sai Krishna Reddy [Oak Ridge National Labor↗

Scalable Polymer Precursor Based LiPON Type Li-Metal Interface Enabled High Performance Li-Sulfur Battery

The Battery 500 program objective is to research, develop, and demonstrate lithium battery technologies capable of achieving 500 Wh/kg with stable lifetime of 1000 cycles. This Battery 500 seedlings project has demonstrated a new approach and a pathway toward the program’s goals in just one awarded and executed phase. Cells have been assembled, tested, and evaluated. This report details efforts to develop polymer precursor electrolytes that offer properties anticipated to be similar or superior to LiPON glasses. Such precursors offer the potential to be used to process LiPON-like thin glass/ceramic coatings for use in lithium batteries. LiPON glasses provide a design basis for the synthesis of sets of oligomers/polymers by lithiation of OP(NH 2 ) 3-x (NH) x [from OP(NH) 3 ], OP(NH 2 ) 3-x (NHSiMe 3 ) x and [P=N] 3 (NHSiMe 3 ) 6-x (NH) x . Polymer electrolytes impregnated in/on celgard exhibit Li+ conductivities up to ~1×10 -5 S/cm at room temperature and are thermally stable to ≈150 °C. A Li-S battery assembled using a Li 6 SiPON composition polymer electrolyte exhibits an initial reversible capacity of 1500 mAh/g sulfur and excellent cycle performance at 0.25 and 0.5 C rate over 120 cycles, declining to 750 mAh/g at after a 220 h test period. At the same time, computational studies were performed to understand the conduction mechanism of LIPON and its interaction with Li metal. These initial project results provide a foundation for further development of the system to achieve the program goal.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Davis Computational Spectroscopy Workflow—From Structure to Spectra

Here, we describe an automated workflow that connects a series of atomic simulation tools to investigate the relationship between atomic structure, lattice dynamics, materials properties, and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectra. Starting from the atomic simulation environment (ASE) as an interface, we demonstrate the use of a selection of calculators, including density functional theory (DFT) and density functional tight binding (DFTB), to optimize the structures and calculate interatomic force constants. We present the use of our workflow to compute the phonon frequencies and eigenvectors, which are required to accurately simulate the INS spectra in crystalline solids like diamond and graphite as well as molecular solids like rubrene. We have also implemented a machine-learning force field based on Chebyshev polynomials called the Chebyshev interaction model for efficient simulation (ChIMES) to improve the accuracy of the DFTB simulations. We then explore the transferability of our DFTB/ChIMES models by comparing simulations derived from different training sets. We show that DFTB/ChIMES demonstrates ~100× reduction in computational expense while retaining most of the accuracy of DFT as well as yielding high accuracy for different materials outside of our training sets. The DFTB/ChIMES method within the workflow expands the possibilities to use simulations to accurately predict materials properties of increasingly complex structures that would be unfeasible with ab initio methods.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Enhancing the accuracy of density functional tight binding models through ChIMES many-body interaction potentials

Semi-empirical quantum models such as Density Functional Tight Binding (DFTB) are attractive methods for obtaining quantum simulation data at longer time and length scales than possible with standard approaches. However, application of these models can require lengthy effort due to the lack of a systematic approach for their development. In this work, we discuss the use of the Chebyshev Interaction Model for Efficient Simulation (ChIMES) to create rapidly parameterized DFTB models, which exhibit strong transferability due to the inclusion of many-body interactions that might otherwise be inaccurate. We apply our modeling approach to silicon polymorphs and review previous work on titanium hydride. We also review the creation of a general purpose DFTB/ChIMES model for organic molecules and compounds that approaches hybrid functional and coupled cluster accuracy with two orders of magnitude fewer parameters than similar neural network approaches. In all cases, DFTB/ChIMES yields similar accuracy to the underlying quantum method with orders of magnitude improvement in computational cost. In conclusion, our developments provide a way to create computationally efficient and highly accurate simulations over varying extreme thermodynamic conditions, where physical and chemical properties can be difficult to interrogate directly, and there is historically a significant reliance on theoretical approaches for interpretation and validation of experimental results.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Erratum: “DFTB+, a software package for efficient approximate density functional theory based atomistic simulations” [J. Chem. Phys. 152, 124101 (2020)]

The implementation of the GPU support in DFTB+, as described in Sec. III C of the original publication,1 was developed based on a previous unpublished implementation by Jacek Jakowski. In order to acknowledge his work on this first implementation, the authors of the original publication wish to include J. Jakowski as co-author. The scientific content of the original publication is not affected.

42 ENGINEERING↗

ORNL_AISD-Ex: Quantum chemical prediction of UV/Vis absorption spectra for over 10 million organic molecules

We performed calculations of electronic excitation energies and associated oscillator strengths based on the time-dependent density-functional tight-binding (TD-DFTB) method [1]. The SMILES (Simplified molecular-input line-entry system) strings of the molecules from the AISD HOMO-LUMO database [2] were converted to a 3D atomistic structure and stored in a PDB file after preliminary geometry optimization using the Merck Molecular Force Field (MMFF94) in RDKit [3,4]. The primary information stored in the PDB file archive consists of Cartesian coordinates for each atom of the molecule in their 3D location in space, along with summary information about the structure, sequence, and experiment. We then performed molecular geometry optimization using the density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) method [5] in the electronic ground state, followed by single-point excited states calculations, as described below. We note that, since RDKit employs a random choice for the generation of molecular conformers, the molecular geometries obtained in this dataset could be different from the ones that were generated when the AISD HOMO-LUMO dataset was generated. The computed excitation energies and associated oscillator strengths can be converted to predict UV/Vis absorption spectra, where excitation energies correspond to absorption peak positions, and oscillator strengths are a good measure of the probability of absorption of visible or UV light in transitions between electronic ground and excited states. The conversion of SMILES strings to 3D Cartesian coordinates of fully DFTB-optimized molecules was successful for 10,502,904 out of 10,502,917 molecules. For these molecules, both geometry optimizations and excited states calculations were successful. The DFTB calculations did not complete for 13 molecules of the original AISD HOMO-LUMO dataset. We still provide information about the geometry of these molecules. The molecules are diverse for chemical compositions (which span 5 non-hydrogen elements: oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, sulfur) and molecular size (the smallest molecule contains 5 non-hydrogen atoms, and the largest molecule contains 71 non-hydrogen atoms). The DFTB method [5] is an approximation to density functional theory (DFT), utilizing a minimal basis set in conjunction with a two-center approximation to the electronic Hamiltonian and overlap matrix elements. The DFTB total energy is the sum of an electronic and a repulsive energy contribution, and their calculation requires optimized electronic parameters and diatomic repulsive potential energy functions. All DFTB calculations were performed using the DFTB+ code [6] (version 21.2) and the wrapper for DFTB+ in the Atomic Simulation Environment (ASE) (version 3.22.1) [7], which performed an internal conversion of Cartesian coordinates from PDB to the .gen file format. For the geometry optimizations on the electronic ground state potential energy surface of the molecules, we have chosen the third-order DFTB (DFTB3) method [5c] and employed the matching 3ob set of electronic parameters and repulsive potentials [8]. The empirical γ-damping for hydrogen bond correction, and Grimme's D3 empirical dispersion correction with Becke-Johnson damping (D3(BJ)) [9] dispersion correction was included to improve the description of non-covalent interactions. For excited states single-point energy calculations, we employed the TD-DFTB method in conjunction with the DFTB2 method [5b] and the matching mio [5b,10] and halorg [11] parameter sets. We opted to request the simultaneous calculation of 50 excited states for singlet transition to investigate sufficient number of excited states, based on linear response theory using the Casida equation [Ref: T. A. Niehaus, S. Suhai, F. Della Sala, P Lugli, M. Elstner, G. Seifert, and Th. Frauenheim. Tight-binding approach to time-dependent density-functional response theory. Phys. Rev. B, 63:085108, 2001] and the ARPACK diagonalizer [R. B. Lehoucq, D. C. Sorensen, and C. Yang. Arpack users guide: Solution of large-scale eigenvalue problems by implicitly restarted arnoldi methods, 1997. 46, 51]. The dataset contains 1001 tar.gz files. Tar files are named as “ornl_aisd_ex_1.tar.gz†through “ornl_aisd_ex_1000.tar.gzâ€. Additionally, the 13 failed molecules are in “ornl_aisd_ex_unprocessed.tar.gzâ€. Except for the tar files listed below, each tar file contains 10,500 molecules. Tar files numbered 34, 121, 128, 352, 360, 429, 495, 509, 518, 627, 676, 668, and 862 contain 10,499 molecules each. The last tar file numbered 1000 contains 13,417 molecules. The total size of the uncompressed dataset is over 283 Gigabytes. The code for calculating the electronic excitation energies and statistical analysis of the dataset is provided at the following GitLab repository: https://github.com/ORNL/Analysis-of-Large-Scale-Molecular-Datasets-with-Python Calculating the UV spectrum of a molecule requires performing 3 main operations: 1. Converting the smiles string representation of a molecule into a geometric structure where each atom is assigned XYZ coordinates. The geometric structure is written to the file smiles.pdb. 2. Using smiles.pdb to compute the relaxed geometry of the molecule, which corresponds with the position of the atoms at the position of equilibrium at the ground state. This generates the files band.out, detailed.out, and geo_end.gen. 3. Using geo_end.gen to calculate the UV spectrum of the molecule which is written into the file EXC.DAT. Every molecule in the dataset has its own directory. The files contained in each molecule directory are as follows: 1. geo_end.gen 2. detailed.out 3. band.out 4. EXC.DAT 5. smiles.pdb REFERENCES [1] Niehaus, T. A.; Suhai, S.; Della Salla, F.; Lugli, P.; Elstner, M.; Seifert, G.; Frauenheim, Th. Tight-binding approach to time-dependent density-functional response theory. Phys. Rev. B, 2001, 63, 085108/1-9. [2] Blanchard, A.; Gounley, J.; Metha, K.; Yoo, P.; Irle, S. AISD HOMO-LUMO. DOI: 10.13139/ORNLNCCS/1869409 [3] RDKit: Cheminformatics and Machine Learning Software. 2013, [http://www.rdkit.org] [4] Tosco, P.; Stiefl, N. and Landrum, G. Bringing the MMFF force field to the RDKit: implementation and validation. J Cheminform. 2014, 6, 1–4. [5] a) Porezag, D.; Frauenheim, T.; Kohler, T.; Seifert, G.; Kaschner, Construction of tight-binding-like potentials on the basis of density-functional theory: Application to carbon, R. Phys. Rev. B 1995, 51, 12947-12957; b) Elstner, M.; Porezag, D.; Jungnickel, G.; Elsner, J.; Haugk, M.; Frauenheim, Th.; Suhai, S.; Seifert, G.; Phys. Rev. B 1998, 58, 7260-7268; c) Gaus, M.; Cui, Q.; Elstner, M. DFTB3: Extension of the Self-Consistent-Charge Density-Functional Tight-Binding Method (SCC-DFTB), J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2011, 7, 931-948; d) Cui, Q.; Elstner, M. Density functional tight binding: values of semi-empirical methods in an ab initio era, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2014, 16, 14368-14377. [6] Hourahine, B. et al. DFTB+, a software package for efficient approximate density functional theory based atomistic simulations, J. Chem. Phys. 2020, 152, 124101/1-19. [7] Larsen, A. H. et al. The atomic simulation environment—a Python library for working with atoms. J. Phys.: Cond. Matter 2017, 29, 273002. [8] Kubillus, M.; Kubar, T.; Gaus, M.; Rezac, J.; Elstner, M. Parameterization of the DFTB3 Method for Br, Ca, Cl, F, I, K, and Na in Organic and Biological Systems, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2015, 11, 332-342. [9] Brandenburg, J. G.; Grimme, S. Accurate Modeling of Organic Molecular Crystals by Dispersion-Corrected Density Functional Tight Binding (DFTB), J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 1785−1789. [10] a) Niehaus, T. A.; Elstner, M.; Frauenheim, Th.; Suhai, S. Application of an approximate density-functional method to sulfur containing compounds. J. Mol. Struct.: THEOCHEM 2001, 541, 185-94; b) Elstner, M.; Hobza, P.; Frauenheim, Th.; Suhai, S.; Kaxiras, E. Hydrogen bonding and stacking interactions of nucleic acid base pairs: A density-functional-theory based treatment. J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 114, 5149-55. [11] Kubar, T.; Bodrog, Z.; Gaus, M.; Köhler, C.; Aradi, B.; Frauenheim, Th.; Elstner, M. Parametrization of the SCC-DFTB Method for Halogens. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2013, 9, 2939-49.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Large-Scale, GPU-Enhanced DFTB Approaches for Probing Multi-Component Alloys

The major goals of the project are to develop and apply GPU-enhanced density functional theory tight binding (DFTB) calculations for efficient simulations of structural materials of alloy systems. The figure below depicts the GPU algorithmic developments on the left that will be carried out, and the solid-state structures on the right are representative of the complex alloys that can be computed with the GPU-enhanced DFTB approach. The methodology and tools developed in this project encompass accurate intermolecular potentials and GPU enhancements to the density functional tight binding (DFTB) approach for high-throughput ab initio molecular dynamics calculations of multi-component alloys at elevated temperatures. While classical molecular dynamics can handle hundreds of thousands of atoms, it cannot provide a first-principles based description of large, multi-component alloys at the predictive quantum level. At the other extreme, conventional Kohn-Sham DFT methods can probe the true quantum nature of chemical systems; however, these methods cannot tackle the large sizes relevant to these multi-component systems. The DFTB-based ab initio molecular dynamics approach (coupled with our in-house GPU capabilities for enhanced speed) used in this project provides a viable approach for probing these large systems at a quantum level of detail that is significantly faster than current first-principle methods Collectively, the capabilities developed in this project directly respond to DOE HBCU-OMI, AOI 2-1 initiatives by (1) enabling accurate and efficient predictions and (2) bringing a fundamental understanding of structural interactions in these complex systems at elevated temperatures.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

Importance of Nuclear Quantum Effects on Aqueous Electrolyte Transport under Confinement in Ti 3 C 2 MXenes

Protons display a high chemical activity and strongly affect the charge storage capability in confined interlayer spaces of two-dimensional (2D) materials. As such, an accurate representation of proton dynamics under confinement is important for understanding and predicting charge storage dynamics in these materials. While often ignored in atomistic-scale simulations, nuclear quantum effects (NQEs), e.g., tunneling, can be significant under confinement even at room temperature. Here, using the thermostatted ring polymer molecular dynamics implementation of path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) in conjunction with the ReaxFF force field, density functional tight binding (DFTB), and NequIP neural network potential simulations, we investigate the role of NQEs on proton and water transport in bulk water and aqueous electrolytes under confinement in Ti 3 C 2 MXenes. Although overall NQEs are relatively small, especially in bulk, we find that they can alter both quantitative values and qualitative trends on both proton transport and water self-diffusion under confinement relative to classical MD predictions. Therefore, our results suggest the need for NQEs to be considered to simulate aqueous systems under confinement for both qualitative and quantitative accuracy.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Semi-Automated Creation of Density Functional Tight Binding Models through Leveraging Chebyshev Polynomial-Based Force Fields

Density functional tight binding (DFTB) is an attractive method for accelerated quantum simulations of condensed matter due to its enhanced computational efficiency over standard density functional theory (DFT) approaches. However, DFTB models can be challenging to determine for individual systems of interest, especially for metallic and interfacial systems where different bonding arrangements can lead to significant changes in electronic states. In this regard, we have created a rapid-screening approach for determining systematically improvable DFTB interaction potentials that can yield transferable models for a variety of conditions. Our method leverages a recent reactive molecular dynamics force field where many-body interactions are represented by linear combinations of Chebyshev polynomials. This allows for the efficient creation of multi-center representations with relative ease, requiring only a small investment in initial DFT calculations. Here, we have focused our workflow on TiH 2 as a model system and show that a relatively small training set based on unit-cell-sized calculations yields a model accurate for both bulk and surface properties. Our approach is easy to implement and can yield reliable DFTB models over a broad range of thermodynamic conditions, where physical and chemical properties can be difficult to interrogate directly and there is historically a significant reliance on theoretical approaches for interpretation and validation of experimental results.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Density-Functional Tight-Binding Parameters for Bulk Zirconium: A Case Study for Repulsive Potentials

Density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) parameters are presented for the simulation of the bulk phases of zirconium. Electronic parameters were obtained using a band structure fitting strategy, while two-center repulsive potentials were created by particle swarm optimization. As objective functions for the repulsive potential fitting, we employed the Birch–Murnaghan equations of state for hexagonal close-packed (HCP), body-centered cubic (BCC) and ω phases of Zr from density-functional theory (DFT). When fractional atomic coordinates are not allowed to change in the generation of the equation-of-state curves, long-range repulsive DFTB potentials are able to almost perfectly reproduce equilibrium structures, relative DFT energies of the bulk phases, and bulk moduli. However, the same potentials lead to artifacts in the DFTB potential energy surfaces when atom positions in the unit cell are allowed to fully relax during the change of unit cell parameters. Finally, conventional short-range repulsive DFTB potentials, while inferior in their ability to reproduce DFT bulk energetics, are able to correctly reproduce the qualitative shape of the DFT potential energy surfaces, including the location of global minima, and can therefore be considered more transferable.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Development of a Transferable Density-Functional Tight-Binding Model for Organic Molecules at the Water/Platinum Interface

A computationally efficient and transferable approach for modeling reactions at metal/water interfaces could significantly accelerate our understanding and ultimately the development of new catalytic transformations, particularly in the context of the emerging field of biomass conversion. Here, we present a parametrization of Pt–X (X = H, O, C) density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) for addressing this need. We first constructed Pt–H, Pt–O, and Pt–C repulsive potential splines. These pairwise parameters were then augmented to include many-body interactions using the Chebyshev Interaction Model for Efficient Simulation (ChIMES). We compare the geometrical and energetic performances of both DFTB and DFTB/ChIMES methods with DFT reference data across a variety of organic molecules at the platinum surface from nanoparticles to single-crystal surfaces. DFTB shows limited transferability between extended crystal surfaces and small nanoparticles. This transferability is significantly improved through the introduction of three-body interactions with Pt in DFTB/ChIMES, which provides consistent results across various systems, with reductions in the RMSD from around 30 kcal/mol in DFTB to around 10 kcal/mol. We demonstrate the stability and reliability of the obtained parameters by performing metadynamic simulations for the adsorption of phenol on Pt(111). We observe that DFTB itself is undersolvating the surface, leading to only one or two chemisorbed water molecules in a c(4 × 6) unit cell. In contrast, DFTB/ChIMES leads to a coverage of about 0.5 ML and successfully captures the chemisorbed mode of phenol at both the solid/liquid and the solid/gas interfaces. Furthermore, in agreement with experimental measurements, the adsorption at the solid/liquid interface is significantly weaker than that at the solid/gas interface. As a result, we highlight that even with DFTB, where we can accumulate dynamics for more than 1 ns for a given system, the simulations are not fully converged.

Adsorption↗

STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES STUDY ON ENERGY MATERIALS: THERMOELECTRIC MATERIAL TETRAHEDRITE AND LITHIUM ION CONDUCTOR LiPON

Development of efficient energy materials is critical in order to ease the energy demand and reduce our dependence of fossil fuel. Thermoelectric materials are promising due to their capability of generating electrical power by recovering waste heat. The performance of thermoelectric materials is quantified by a dimensionless figure of merit zT, which depends on their properties such as electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity. Tetrahedrites, a copper antimony sulfosalt mineral, typified by Cu12-xMxSb4S13, where M is a transition metal element such as Ni, Zn, Fe or Mn, have great potential for thermoelectric application due to their relatively high zT (close to 1 at 700 K), earth-abundance, environmental friendliness, favorable electrical properties, and most importantly intrinsic low lattice thermal conductivity (less than 1 W m-1 K-1) in wide temperature. In addition to energy recovery, reliable energy storage devices are also emerging to relieve the energy demand and improve the efficiency of consuming energy resources. Lithium-ion batteries are known to be reliable and successful electrochemical energy storage devices and appliable in various aspects, including laptops, smartphones and electrical vehicles. Lithium phosphorous oxynitride (LiPON) are widely used as thin-film solid-state electrolytes in Li-ion battery, which is the only demonstrated solid-state electrolyte that is quite stable in direct contact with Li metal at potentials from 0-5 V. However, the structure of LiPON, the effects of N doping, and the origin of its good electrochemical stability remains inconclusive.In this thesis, reliable modeling techniques accompanied with experimental tools, are applied to study the thermoelectric material tetrahedrite and the ionic conductor LiPON, in order to study their structural and dynamical properties. Accurate and efficient density-functional theory (DFT) and density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) methods, combined with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are utilized in order to investigate the structures and properties of these energy materials. The incoherent and coherent atomic dynamics study of tetrahedrite Cu10.5NiZn0.5Sb4S13 provides the origin of softening upon cooling by investigate the motion of Cu12e at different temperatures. The dynamic structure factors in the longitudinal and transverse direction will also be discussed. The Cu movement of Cu-rich tetrahedrite Cu14Sb4S13 is revealed by Cu self-diffusivity, nuclear density map and "nudged elastic band" (NEB). Moreover, we investigate the effect of simulation cell size and basis sets on the DFT-based MD simulation results using tetrahedrite Cu10Zn2Sb4S13 thermoelectric as a model material, showing the advantage of larger cell by accessing smaller Q range. In addition, the low-temperature structural properties of Cu12Sb4S13 is measured by neutron diffraction, which indicates that no cubic to tetragonal transition occurs at metal-semiconductor transition (MST) temperature. Thermoelectric properties such as Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity and electrical thermal conductivity will also be investigated. DFTB method is implemented to study the structure and transport properties of Li3PO4 and LiPON, while the exploration of N doping effect is included. Lastly, the LiPON/Li interphase will be revealed in order to study the origin of electrochemical stability

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES STUDY ON ENERGY MATERIALS: THERMOELECTRIC MATERIAL TETRAHEDRITE AND LITHIUM ION CONDUCTOR

Development of efficient energy materials is critical in order to ease the energy demand and reduce our dependence of fossil fuel. Thermoelectric materials are promising due to their capability of generating electrical power by recovering waste heat. The performance of thermoelectric materials is quantified by a dimensionless figure of merit zT, which depends on their properties such as electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity. Tetrahedrites, a copper antimony sulfosalt mineral, typified by Cu 12-x MxSb 4 S 13 , where M is a transition metal element such as Ni, Zn, Fe or Mn, have great potential for thermoelectric application due to their relatively high zT (close to 1 at 700 K), earth-abundance, environmental friendliness, favorable electrical properties, and most importantly intrinsic low lattice thermal conductivity (less than 1 W m -1 K -1 ) in wide temperature. In addition to energy recovery, reliable energy storage devices are also emerging to relieve the energy demand and improve the efficiency of consuming energy resources. Lithium-ion batteries are known to be reliable and successful electrochemical energy storage devices and appliable in various aspects, including laptops, smartphones and electrical vehicles. Lithium phosphorous oxynitride (LiPON) are widely used as thin-film solid-state electrolytes in Li-ion battery, which is the only demonstrated solid-state electrolyte that is quite stable in direct contact with Li metal at potentials from 0-5 V. However, the structure of LiPON, the effects of N doping, and the origin of its good electrochemical stability remains inconclusive. In this thesis, reliable modeling techniques accompanied with experimental tools, are applied to study the thermoelectric material tetrahedrite and the ionic conductor LiPON, in order to study their structural and dynamical properties. Accurate and efficient density-functional theory (DFT) and density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) methods, combined with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are utilized in order to investigate the structures and properties of these energy materials. The incoherent and coherent atomic dynamics study of tetrahedrite Cu 10.5 NiZn 0.5 Sb 4 S 13 provides the origin of softening upon cooling by investigate the motion of Cu12e at different temperatures. The dynamic structure factors in the longitudinal and transverse direction will also be discussed. The Cu movement of Cu-rich tetrahedrite Cu 14 Sb 4 S 13 is revealed by Cu self-diffusivity, nuclear density map and “nudged elastic band” (NEB). Moreover, we investigate the effect of simulation cell size and basis sets on the DFT-based MD simulation results using tetrahedrite Cu1 0 Zn 2 Sb 4 S 13 thermoelectric as a model material, showing the advantage of larger cell by accessing smaller Q range. In addition, the low-temperature structural properties of Cu 12 Sb 4 S 13 is measured by neutron diffraction, which indicates that no cubic to tetragonal transition occurs at metal-semiconductor transition (MST) temperature. Thermoelectric properties such as Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity and electrical thermal conductivity will also be investigated. DFTB method is implemented to study the structure and transport properties of Li 3 PO 4 and LiPON, while the exploration of N doping effect is included. Lastly, the LiPON/Li interphase will be revealed in order to study the origin of electrochemical stability.

Li, Junchao↗