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We show results from first-principles calculations for cerium at very high compressions. These reveal a most remarkable behavior in a material; depending on atomic volume, cerium adopts three distinct face-centered cubic (fcc) phases driven by different physical mechanisms. The two well-known a and phases are vigorously debated in the literature, but we focus on the a phase as a metal with delocalized character of the 4f electron. The ultimate high compression fcc phase, here named omega, is driven partly by electrostatics. Our density-functional theory (DFT) study excellently reproduces the experimentally known compression behavior of cerium up to a few Mbar but goes beyond those pressures with structural transitions to tetragonal, hexagonal, and cubic (fcc) phases occurring before 100 Mbar (10000 GPa or 10 TPa). The 4f-electron contribution to the chemical bonding is shown to rule phase transitions and compressibility. The change of 4f occupation nicely explains the pressure dependence of the structural axial ratio in the tetragonal phase. At very high pressure, structures known at low pressures return because of band broadening, electrostatic ion repulsion, and an increase in hybridization between states that under normal conditions can be considered core (atomic like) states and the valence-band states.

High-temperature properties of ceria surfaces are important for many applications. Here, we report the temperature dependencies of surface energy for (111) and (110) CeO₂ obtained in the framework of the extended two-stage up-sampled thermodynamic integration using Langevin dynamics. The method was used together with machine-learning potentials called moment tensor potentials (MTPs), which were fitted to the results of the ab initio molecular dynamics calculations for (111) and (110) CeO₂ at different temperatures. The parameters of MTP training and fitting were tested, and the optimal algorithm for the ceria systems was proposed. We found that the temperature increases from 0 to 2100 K led to the decrease of the Helmholtz free energy of (111) CeO₂ from 0.78 to 0.64 J/m². The energy of (110) CeO₂ dropped from 1.19 J/m² at 0 K to 0.92 J/m² at 1800 K. We show that it is important to consider anharmonicity, as simple consideration of volume expansion gives the wrong temperature dependencies of the surface energies.

The development of new electrochromic materials and devices, like smart windows, has an enormous impact on the energy efficiency of modern society. One of the crucial materials in this technology is nickel oxide. Ni-deficient NiO shows anodic electrochromism, whose mechanism is still under debate. We use DFT+U calculations to show that Ni vacancy generation results in the formation of hole polarons localized at the two oxygens next to the vacancy. In the case of NiO bulk, upon Li insertion or injection of an extra electron into Ni-deficient NiO, one hole gets filled, and the hole bipolaron is converted into a hole polaron well-localized at one O atom, resulting from the transition between oxidized (colored) to reduced (bleached) state. In the case of the Ni-deficient NiO(001) surface, the qualitatively same picture is obtained upon embedding Li, Na, and K into the Ni surface vacancy, reinforcing the conclusion that the electron injection, resulting in the filling of the hole states, is responsible for the modulation of the optical properties of NiO. Hence, our results suggest a new mechanism of Ni-deficient NiO electrochromism not related to the change of the Ni oxidation states, i.e., the Ni2+/Ni3+ transition, but based on the formation and annihilation of hole polarons in oxygen p-states.

For carbon-based materials, in contrast to metal surfaces, a general relationship between strain and reactivity is not yet established, even though there are literature reports on strained graphene. Knowledge of such relationships would be extremely beneficial for understanding the reactivity of graphene-based surfaces and finding optimisation strategies which would make these materials more suitable for targeted applications. Here we investigate the effects of compressive and tensile strain (up to +/- 5%) on the structure, electronic properties and reactivity of pure, N-doped and P-doped graphene, using DFT calculations. We demonstrate the possibility of tuning the topology of the graphene surface by strain, as well as by the choice of the dopant atom. The reactivity of (doped) strained graphene is probed using H and Na as simple adsorbates of great practical importance. Strain can both enhance and weaken H and Na adsorption on (doped) graphene. In case of Na adsorption, a linear relationship is observed between the Na adsorption energy on P-doped graphene and the phosphorus charge. A linear relationship between the Na adsorption energy on flat graphene surfaces and strain is found. Based on the adsorption energies and electrical conductivity, potentially good candidates for hydrogen storage and sodiumion battery electrodes are discussed.

Understanding the reactions in M-O-2 cells (M = Li or Na) is of great importance for further advancement of this promising technology. Computational modelling can be helpful along this way, but an adequate approach is needed to model such complex systems. We propose a new scheme for modelling processes in M-O-2 cells, where reference energies are obtained from high-level theory, CCSD(T), while the interactions of reaction intermediates with catalyst surfaces are extracted from computationally less expensive DFT. The approach is demonstrated for the case of graphene-based surfaces as model catalysts in Li-O-2 and Na-O-2 cells using the minimum viable mechanism. B-doped graphene was identified as the best catalyst amongst considered surfaces, while pristine graphene performs poorly. Moreover, we show that the inclusion of dispersion corrections for DFT has a significant impact on calculated discharge and charge potentials and suggests that long-range dispersion interactions should always be considered when graphene-based materials are modelled as electrocatalysts. Finally, we offer general guidelines for designing new ORR catalysts for M-O-2 cells in terms of the optimization of the interactions of catalyst surface with reaction intermediates.

In 2017, we discovered quaternary i-MAX phases atomically layered solids, where M is an early transition metal, A is an A group element, and X is C—with a (M¹_2/3M²_1/3)₂AC chemistry, where the M¹ and M² atoms are in-plane ordered. Herein, we report the discovery of a class of magnetic i-MAX phases in which bilayers of a quasi-2D magnetic frustrated triangular lattice overlay a Mo honeycomb arrangement and an Al Kagome lattice. The chemistry of this family is (Mo_2/3RE_1/3)₂AlC, and the rare-earth, RE, elements are Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Lu. The magnetic properties were characterized and found to display a plethora of ground states, resulting from an interplay of competing magnetic interactions in the presence of magnetocrystalline anisotropy.

Using the Exact Muffin-Tin Orbitals method within the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof exchange-correlation approximation for solids and solid surfaces (PBEso1), we study the single crystal elastic constants of 4d transition metals (atomic number Z between 39 and 47) and their binary alloys in the body centered cubic (bcc) and face centered cubic (fcc) structures. Alloys between the first neighbors Z(Z + 1) and between the second neighbors Z(Z + 2) are considered. The lattice constants, bulk moduli and elastic constants are found in good agreement with the available experimental and theoretical data. It is shown that the correlation between the relative tetragonal shear elastic constant C-fcc'-2C(bcc)' and the structural energy difference between the fcc and bcc lattices Delta E is superior to the previously considered models. For a given crystal structure, the equiatomic Z(Z + 2) alloys turn out to have similar structural and elastic properties as the pure elements with atomic number (Z + 1). Furthermore, alloys with composition Z(1-x)(Z + 2)(x) possess similar properties as Z(1-2x)(Z + 1)(2x). The present theoretical data on the structural and the elastic properties of 4d transition metal alloys provides consistent input for coarse scale modeling of material properties.

A density-functional theory investigation of the (100) and (110) surfaces of the body-centered cubic (bcc) Fe1-xbCrxb binary alloys, x(b) <= 15 at.%, is reported. The energies and segregation energies of these surfaces were calculated for chemically homogeneous concentration profiles and for Cr surface contents deviating from the nominal one of the bulk. The implications of these results for the surface alloy phase diagram are discussed. The surface chemistry of Fe-Cr(100) is characterized by a transition from Cr depletion to Cr enrichment in a critical bulk Cr composition window of 6 < x(b) < 9 at.%. In contrast, such threshold behavior of the surface Cr content is absent for Fe-Cr(110) and a nearly homogeneous Cr concentration profile is energetically favorable. The strongly suppressed surface-layer relaxation at both surfaces is shown to be of magnetic origin. The compressive, magnetic contribution to the surface relaxation stress is found to correlate well with the surface magnetic moment squared at both surface terminations. The stability of the Cr surface magnetic moments against bulk Cr content is clarified based on the surface electronic structure.

Due to its unique physical and chemical properties, graphene is being considered as a promising material for energy conversion and storage applications. Introduction of functional groups and dopants on/in graphene is a useful strategy for tuning its properties. In order to fully exploit its potential, atomic-level understanding of its interaction with species of importance for such applications is required. We present a DFT study of the interaction of sodium atoms with epoxy-graphene and analyze how this interaction is affected upon doping with boron and nitrogen. We demonstrate how the dopants, combined with oxygen-containing groups alter the reactivity of graphene towards Na. Dopants act as attractors of epoxy groups, enhancing the sodium adsorption on doped oxygen-functionalized graphene when compared to the case of non-doped epoxy-graphene. Furthermore, by considering thermodynamics of the Na interaction with doped epoxy-graphene it has been concluded that such materials are good candidates for Na storage applications. Therefore, we suggest that controlled oxidation of doped carbon materials could lead to the development of advanced anode materials for rechargeable Na-ion batteries.

Vacancies in graphene present sites of altered chemical reactivity and open possibilities to tune graphene properties by defect engineering. The understanding of chemical reactivity of such defects is essential for successful implementation of carbon materials in advanced technologies. We report the results of a systematic DFT study of atomic adsorption on graphene with a single vacancy for the elements of rows 1-6 of the periodic table of elements (PTE), excluding lanthanides. The calculations have been performed using the PBE, long-range dispersion interaction-corrected PBE (PBE+D2 and PBE+D3) and non-local vdW-DF2 functionals. We find that most elements strongly bind to the vacancy, except for the elements of groups 11 and 12, and noble gases, for which the contribution of dispersion interaction to bonding is most significant. The strength of the interaction with the vacancy correlates with the cohesive energy of the elements in their stable phases: the higher the cohesive energy is, the stronger bonding to the vacancy can be expected. As most atoms can be trapped at the SV site we have calculated the potentials of dissolution and found that in most cases the metals adsorbed at the vacancy are more "noble" than they are in their corresponding stable phases.