A first-principles study of the catalytic mechanism of the dehydriding reaction of LiNH2 through adding Ti catalysts

Experiments on a ball milled mixture with a 1:1 molar ratio of LiNH2 and LiH with a small amount(1 mol %) of Ti nano,TiCl3 and TiO nano 2 have revealed a superior catalytic effect on Li-N-H hydrogen storage materials.In the x-ray diffraction profiles,no trace of Ti nano,TiCl3 and TiO nano 2 was found in these doped composites,by which we deduced that Ti atoms enter LiNH2 by partial element substitution.A first-principles plane-wave pseudopotential method based on density functional theory has been used to investigate the catalytic effects of Ti catalysts on the dehydrogenating properties of LiNH2 system.The results show that Ti substitution can reduce the dehydrogenation reaction activation energy of LiNH2 and improve the dehydrogenating properties of LiNH2.Based on the analysis of the density of states and overlap populations for LiNH2 before and after Ti substitution,it was found that the stability of the system of LiNH2 is reduced,which originates from the increase of the valence electrons at the Fermi level(EF) and the decrease of the highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO)-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(LUMO) gap(△EH-L) near E F.The catalytic effect of Ti on the dehydrogenating kinetics of LiNH2 may be attributed to the reduction of average populations between N-H per unit bond length(nm-1),which leads to the reduction of the chemical bond strength of N-H.     

Spatial pattern formation of a ratio-dependent predator-prey model

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of evolutionary process that involves organisms distribution and their interaction of spatially distributed population with diffusion in a Holling-III ratio-dependent predator-prey model, the sufficient conditions for diffusion-driven instability with Neumann boundary conditions are obtained. Furthermore, it presents novel numerical evidence of time evolution of patterns controlled by diffusion in the model, and finds that the model dynamics exhibits complex pattern replication, and the pattern formation depends on the choice of the initial conditions. The ideas in this paper may provide a better understanding of the pattern formation in ecosystems.     

Vacancy effect on the doping of silicon nanowires:A first-principles study

The influence of vacancy defect on the doping of silicon nanowires is systematically studied by the first-principles calculations. The atomic structures and electronic properties of vacancies and vacancy–boron(vacancy–phosphor) complexes in H-passivated silicon nanowire with a diameter of 2.3 nm are explored. The results of geometry optimization indicate that a central vacancy can exist stably, while the vacancy at the edge of the nanowire undergoes a local surface reconstruction, which results in the extradition of the vacancy out of the nanowire. Total-energy calculations indicate that the central vacancy tends to form a vacancy–dopant defect pair. Further analysis shows that n-type doping efficiency is strongly inhibited by the unintentional vacancy defect. In contrast, the vacancy defect has little effect on p-type doping.Our results suggest that the vacancy defect should be avoided during the growth and the fabrication of devices.     

Ab initio study of H and He migrations in β-phase Sc, Y, and Er hydrides

Ab initio calculations based on the density functional theory have been performed to investigate the migrations of hydrogen(H) and helium(He) atoms in β-phase scandium(Sc),yttrium(Y),and erbium(Er) hydrides with three different ratios of H to metal.The results show that the migration mechanisms of H and He atoms mainly depend on the crystal structures of hydrides,but their energy barriers are affected by the host-lattice in metal hydrides.The formation energies of octahedral-occupancy H(H oct) and tetrahedral vacancy(V tet) pairs are almost the same(about 1.2 eV).It is of interest to note that the migration barriers of H increase with increasing host-lattice atomic number.In addition,the results show that the favorable migration mechanism of He depends slightly on the V tet in the Sc hydride,but strongly on that in the Y and Er hydrides,which may account for different behaviours of initial He release from ScT2 and ErT2.     

Ab initio study of H/O trapping and clustering on U/Al interface

Al coating on U surfaces is one of the methods to protect U against environmental corrosion. The behaviors of hydrogen and oxygen impurities near the Al/α-U interface have been studied in the density functional theory framework. It turns out that U vacancies tend to segregate to the interface with segregation energies of around 0.5-0.8 eV. The segregated U vacancy can act as a sink for H and O impurities, which is saturated when filled with 8 H or 6 O atoms, respectively.Moreover, the O impurities tend to stay in the Al layer while the H impurities prefer to diffuse into the U lattice, suggesting that the Al coating can play a significant role against oxidation but not against hydrogenation of U.     

C-H complex defects and their influence in ZnO single crystal

Infrared absorption local vibration mode(LVM) spectroscopy is used to study hydrogen related defects in n-type ZnO single crystal grown by a closed chemical vapor transport(CVT) method under Zn-rich growth conditions, in which carbon is used as a transport agent. Two C–H complex related absorption peaks at 2850 cm-1and 2919 cm-1 are detected in the sample. The formation of the C–H complex implies an effect of carbon donor passivation and formation suppression of H donor in ZnO. The influence of the complex defects on the electrical property of the CVT-ZnO is discussed based on Hall measurement results and residual impurity analysis.     

Drift-wave fluctuation in an inviscid tokamak plasma

In order to describe the characterization of resistive drift-wave fluctuation in a tokamak plasma,a coupled inviscid two-dimensional Hasegawa–Wakatani model is investigated.Two groups of new analytic solutions with and without phase shift between the fluctuant density and the fluctuant potential are obtained by using the special function transformation method.It is demonstrated that the fluctuant potential shares similar spatio–temporal variations with the density.It is found from the solutions without phase shift that the effect of the diffusion and adiabaticity on the fluctuant density is quite complex,and that the fluctuation may be controlled through the adiabaticity and diffusion.By using the typical parameters in the quasi-adiabatic regime in the solutions with phase shift,it is shown that the density gradient becomes larger as the contours become dense toward the plasma edge and the contours have irregular structures,which reveal the nonuniform distribution in the tokamak edge.     

Interactions between vacancies and prismatic Σ3 grain boundary in α-Al_2O_3:First principles study

Interactions between vacancies and Σ3 prismatic screw-rotation grain boundary in α-Al_2O_3 are investigated by the first principles projector-augmented wave method.It turns out that the vacancy formation energy decreases with reducing the distance between vacancy and grain boundary(GB) plane and reaches the minimum on the GB plane(at the atomic layer next to the GB) for an O(Al) vacancy.The O vacancy located on the GB plane can attract other vacancies nearby to form an O–O di-vacancy while the Al vacancy cannot.Moreover,the O–O di-vacancy can further attract other O vacancies to form a zigzag O vacancy chain on the GB plane,which may have an influence on the diffusion behavior of small atoms such as H and He along the GB plane of α-Al_2O_3.     

Na decorated B6 cluster and its hydrogen storage properties

The structures and hydrogen storage properties of sodium atoms decorated B6 clusters are investigated by the B3LYP method with a 6-311＋G （d, p） basis set. For NamB6 （m = 1-3） clusters, Na atoms are always inclined to separate far enough from each other and not cluster together on a B6 cluster surface so that each Na atom has sufficient space to bind hydrogen molecules. The hydrogen storage gravimetric density of a two Na atoms decorated B6 cluster is 17.91 wt% with an adsorption energy per H2 molecule （AAE/H2） of 0.6851 kcal.mo1^-1. The appropriate AAE/H2 and preferable gravimetric density of the two Na atoms decorated B6 cluster complex indicate that it is feasible for hydrogen storage application in ambient conditions.     

Binding energy of hydrogen-Cd vacancy complex in CdTe

The structural and electronic properties of hydrogen-Cd vacancy complex in CdTe have been studied by using density functional theory. Three typical complexes between hydrogen and Cd vacancy were found in our present study. The stablest complex P₂ was predicted by using the formation energy and the binding energy. We found that the formation of the complex is exothermic and its binding energy is extremely large. The analysis of the transition energy level indicates that the forming of the complex turns the double acceptors caused by Cd vacancy to be a single one. The position of the single acceptor deeper than the shallow acceptor derived from the cation vacancy. At the same time, the forming of the complex directly increases the lifetime of the minority carrier from decreasing its concentration. The mechanism of the hydrogen passivation effect was also briefly discussed in our present study.     

LiNH2储氢材料中间隙H与掺杂原子交互作用对其释氢性能影响机理研究

采用基于密度泛函理论的赝势平面波第一性原理方法,研究了LiNH₂缺陷及其掺杂原子交互作用对其释氢影响.通过对其进行优化求得它们的局域最稳定结构并计算了含间隙H原子缺陷的LiNH₂及其掺杂合金的结合能、间隙缺陷形成能、态密度和电荷布居.结果表明: 系统结合能不能反映LiNH₂及其掺杂合金的释氢性质;平衡时,LiNH₂中有一定的间隙氢原子存在,Mg,Ti掺杂使形成能大大降低,大大增大了间隙氢的浓度. 间隙H原子在带隙引入了缺陷能级使带隙大大减小,提高释氢能力.间隙H原子导致[NH₂]^-中N-H原子间相互作用减弱,容易释氢.间隙H与[NH₂]^-中N存在共价作用,可以解释LiNH₂释氢反应中NH₃的放出.当存在掺杂时,N-H键的键强不均衡,部分较弱,部分较强,较弱的N-H键中H容易放出. 关键词： 储氢材料 第一性原理 缺陷 释氢机理     

Role of vacancy and metal doping on combustive oxidation of Zr/ZrO2 core-shell particles

We studied self-propagated combustion synthesis of transition-metal-doped tetragonal ZrO₂ (t-ZrO₂) with first principles-based one-dimensional diffusion reaction model. The optimal reaction condition for the combustion process was investigated by calculating energetic stability and surface reactivity of oxygen vacancy defects on (101) surface termination of t-ZrO₂ using first-principles density functional methods. In the first-principles model, the surface was doped with 14 different metal impurities in the 4th and 5th row of the periodic table to examine the role of transition-metal doping on the combustion process. Results indicate that there are clear trends in the defect stability and reactivity depending upon the type of metal impurity and their relative location with respect to the oxygen vacancy. Surface density of states and charge density information also show that there is a trade-off between the vacancy stability and chemical activity of the surface defect states. Based on the thermodynamic information obtained from first principles, we analyze the combustion process of a Zr metal particle by using a one-dimensional diffusion-reaction model. The competition between the vacancy-assisted chemisorption and the vacancy diffusion results in an optimal point for rate of combustion reaction with respect to the vacancy stability. From this, we suggest a plausible screening strategy for metal-doping which can be applied at different temperatures and pressures, as well as with different particle sizes. Our analysis indicates that first-principles calculation provides key information that can be subsequently used for an optimization of the reaction rate for a self-sustained combustion process. An explicit inclusion of rates of defect and ionic transport will be introduced into our model in future work.     

The multiple hydrogen location near a α-Fe vacancy

The interaction between 10 hydrogen atoms and a α-Fe structure having a vacancy (V) has been studied using a cluster model and a semi-empirical theoretical method. The energy of the system was calculated by the atom superposition and electron delocalization molecular orbital method. The electronic structure was studied using the concept of density of states and crystal orbital overlap population curves.For the study of a sequential absorption, the hydrogen atoms were positioned in their energy minima configurations, near to the tetrahedral sites neighboring the vacancy, except the last H atom that was located far from the vacancy. The energy difference for H agglomeration was also computed. The vacancy-H_n complexes become less stable than VH species for more than three hydrogen's.The changes in the electronic structure of Fe atoms near the vacancy were also analyzed. The interactions mainly involve Fe 3d and 4s atomic orbitals. The contribution of Fe p orbitals is much less important. The Fe-Fe bond weakened as new Fe-H and H-H pairs were formed. The effect of H atoms is limited to its first Fe neighbors. The detrimental effect of H atoms on the Fe-Fe bonds can be related to the mechanism for embrittlement in α-Fe.     

Oxygen vacancy in N-doped Cu2O crystals: A density functional theory study

The N-doping effects on the electronic properties of Cu2O crystals are investigated using density functional theory. The calculated results show that N-doped Cu2O with or without oxygen vacancy exhibits different modifications of electronic band structure. In N anion-doped Cu2O, some N 2p states overlap and mix with the O 2p valence band, leading to a slight narrowing of band gap compared with the undoped Cu2O. However, it is found that the coexistence of both N impurity and oxygen vacancy contributes to band gap widening which may account for the experimentally observed optical band gap widening by N doping.     

A first-principles theoretical simulation on the electronic structures and optical absorption properties for O vacancy and Ni impurity in TiO2 photocatalysts

The band structures and optical absorption spectra of O vacancy and Ni ion doped anatase TiO₂ were successfully calculated and simulated by a plane wave pseudopotential method based on density functional theory (DFT). From the calculated results, a phenomenon of “impurity compensation” was found: the lower formation energy for O vacancy than Ni impurity indicated that introducing the intrinsic defect of O vacancy into Ni ion doped TiO₂ sample was very possible; the positive binding energy for the combination of O vacancy and Ni impurity indicated that two defects were apt to bind to each other; While Ni impurity produced the donor levels in the forbidden band of TiO₂, Ni impurity with O vacancy produced the acceptor levels upon which the excitation led to the photogenerated electrons with high energy and transferability. The combination of absorption spectra for O vacancy and Ni impurity with O vacancy models could reproduce the experimental measurement very well.     

氧空位对Co掺杂TiO2稀磁半导体中杂质 分布和磁交换的影响

本文使用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法研究了Co掺杂TiO₂稀磁半导体中氧空位对体系能量和磁性的影响. 通过对总能量的计算发现当引入氧空位后近邻杂质体系能量高于均匀掺杂体系, 同时氧空位易在Co近邻位置富集. 进而发现氧空位的存在及其占位可以影响Co离子间的磁交换, 近邻Co离子体系下氧空位的引入使Co离子间的铁磁耦合减弱; 非近邻Co离子体系下, 底面氧空位使Co离子间呈反铁磁耦合而顶点氧空位使Co离子间呈铁磁耦合. 总之, 氧空位的存在对Co掺杂TiO₂材料的能量及磁性都有较大影响.     

First-principles calculations on TiO2 doped by N, Nd, and vacancy

First-principles density functional theory calculations have been carried out to investigate electronic structures of anatase TiO₂ with substitutional dopants of N, Nd, and vacancy, which replace O, Ti, and O, respectively. The calculation on N-doped TiO₂ with the local density approximation (LDA) demonstrates that N doping introduces some states located at the valence band maximum and thus makes the original band gap of TiO₂ smaller. Examining the effect of the strong correlation of Nd 4f electrons on the electronic structure of Nd-doped TiO₂, we have obtained the half-metallic ground state with the LDA and the insulating ground state with the LDA+U (Hubbard coefficient), respectively. In addition, the calculation on vacancy-doped TiO₂ with the LDA shows that a vacancy can induce some states in the band-gap region, which act as shallow donors.