Silicon (Si)-based materials have recently emerged as a promising candidate for anodes in lithium-ion batteries because they exhibit much higher energy-storage capacities than the conventional graphite anode. However, the practical use of Si is hampered by its poor cycleability; during lithiation, Si forms alloys with Li and undergoes significant structural and volume changes, which can cause severe cracking/pulverization and consequent capacity fading arising from the loss of electrical contacts. To overcome these drawbacks, many innovative approaches have been explored with encouraging results; however, many fundamental aspects of the lithiation behavior remain ambiguous. Hence, the focus of this work is to develop a better understanding of the lithiation process at the atomistic scale using quantum mechanical calculations. In addition, based on the improved understanding, we attempt to address the fundamental mechanisms behind the successful approaches to enhance the anode performance. To lay a foundation for the investigation of alloy-type anodes, in Chapter 3, we first examine how lithiation occurs in Si and the formation of crystalline and amorphous LixSi alloys (0 ≤ x ≤ 4); followed by assessing the lithiation-induced changes in the energetics, atomic structure, electronic and mechanical properties, and Li diffusivity. The same approach is then extended to analyze the lithiation behavior of germanium (Ge) and tin (Sn) for developing a generalized understanding on the Group IV alloy-type anodes. Along this comparative study, we notice a few distinguishing features pertain only to Si (or Ge), such as the facile Li diffusion in Ge and facet-dependent lithiation in Si, which are discussed in Chapter 4. Beyond the fundamental research, we also look into factors that may contribute to the improved anode performance, including (i) finetuning of the oxidation effects in Si-rich oxides, [alpha] -SiO [subscript 1/3] (Chapter 5), (ii) maximizing the surface effects through nano-engineered structures (Chapters 6 & 7), and finally (iii) the role of interface in Si-graphene (carbon) composites (Chapter 8).

In addition to their potential use at low to moderate temperatures in mobile fuel cell technologies, metal hydrides may also find application as high temperature tritium getterers in the U.S. DOE Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP). We use Density Functional Theory to identify metal hydrides capable of sequestering tritium at temperatures in excess of 1000 K. First we establish the minimum level of theory required to accurately capture the thermodynamics of highly stable metal hydrides and determine that isotope effects can be neglected for material screening. Binary hydride thermodynamics are largely well established, and ternary and higher hydrides typically either do not form or decompose at lower temperatures. In this thesis we investigate anomalous systems with enhanced stability in order to identify candidates for the NGNP application beyond the binary hydrides. Methods implemented in this work are particularly useful for deriving finite temperature phase stability behavior in condensed systems. We use grand potential minimization methods to predict the interstitial Th−Zr−H phase diagram and apply high throughput, semi-automated screening methodologies to identify candidate complex transition metal hydrides (CTMHs) from a diverse library of all known, simulation ready ternary and quaternary CTMHs (102 materials) and 149 hypothetical ternary CTMHs based on existing prototype structures. Our calculations significantly expand both the thermodynamic data available for known CTMHs and the potential composition space over which previously unobserved CTMHs may be thermodynamically stable. Initial calculations indicate that the overall economic viability of the tritium sequestration system for the NGNP will largely depend on the amount of protium rather than tritium in the metal hydride gettering bed feed stream.

Functional materials with controllable phase transitions have been widely used in devices for information storage (e.g. hard-disk, CD-ROM, memory) and energy storage (e.g. battery, shape memory alloy). One of the important issues to design such materials is to realize the desirable phase transition processes, in which atomistic simulation can be used for the prediction of materials properties. The accuracy of the prediction is largely dependent on searching the true value of the transition rate, which is determined by the minimum energy barrier between stable states, i.e. the saddle point on a potential energy surface (PES). Although a number of methods that search for saddle points on a PES have been developed, they intend to locate only one saddle point with the maximum energy along the transition path at a time. In addition, they do not consider the input uncertainty associated with the calculation of potential energy. To overcome the limitations, in this dissertation, new saddle point search methods are developed to provide a global view of energy landscape with improved efficiency and robustness. First, a concurrent search algorithm for multiple phase transition pathways is developed. The algorithm is able to search multiple local minima and saddle points simultaneously without prior knowledge of initial and final stable configurations. A new representation of transition paths based on parametric Bézier curves is introduced. A curve subdivision scheme is developed to dynamically locate all the intermediate local minima and saddle points along the transition path. Second, a curve swarm search algorithm is developed to exhaustively locate the local minima and saddle points within a region concurrently. The algorithm is based on the flocking of multiple groups of curves. A collective potential model is built to simulate the communication activities among curves. Third, a hybrid saddle-point search method using stochastic kriging models is developed to improve the efficiency of the search algorithm as well as to incorporate model-form uncertainty and numerical errors associated with density functional theory calculation. These algorithms are demonstrated by predicting the hydrogen diffusion process in FeTiH and body-centered iron Fe8H systems.

The power of parallel supercomputing resources has progressed to the point where first-principles calculations involving systems up to 10³ atoms are feasible, allowing ab initio exploration of increasingly complex systems such as amorphous networks, nanostructures, and large defect clusters. Expansion of our fundamental understanding of modified Si-based materials is paramount, as these materials will likely flourish in the foreseeable cost-driven future in diverse micro- and nanotechnologies. Here, density-functional theory calculations within the generalized gradient approximation are applied to refine configurations of Si-based materials generated from Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations and study their resultant structural properties. Particular emphasis is given to the contributions of strain and disorder on the mechanical, optical, and electronic properties of modified Si-based materials in which aspects of compositional variation, phase, strain scheme, morphology, native defect incorporation, and quantum confinement are considered. The simulation strategies discussed are easily extendable to other semiconductor systems. / text

The goal of this research is to obtain the adsorption mechanisms of toxic mercury-containing species (Hg, HgCl and HgCl2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) on inorganic solid surfaces using theoretically predicted results because experiments have been unable to unravel the involved issues. The understanding of the adsorption mechanisms of the mercury species and carbon dioxide from flue gases is important when considering mercury capture from coal-fired power plants, artisanal gold mining, and cement manufacturing industries. The current research attempts to explain each adsorption mechanism for mercury species, and those for carbon dioxide adsorption, on the surfaces through optimized geometries, energies and thermodynamic data.To investigate this research, density functional theory, which is one of useful tools for analyzing reactions on solid surfaces, was used to determine first principles-based theoretical adsorption models. Mainly, results from computational work indicate that mercury-containing species and carbon dioxide adsorption on calcium oxide surfaces and elemental mercury adsorption on a gehlenite surface are exothermic reactions. Calcium oxide is a promising adsorbent for oxidized mercury (HgCl and HgCl2), but not for elemental Hg. Interestingly, the elemental mercury, which is the major form (> 90%) in the flue gases of the coal-combustion power plants, is chemisorbed on a gehlenite surface, which is partially composed of calcium oxide and comes from a mineral transition at high temperature. Strong adsorption on this inorganic sorbent is enhanced at high temperatures even though this adsorption process is exothermic. In addition, CaO surfaces are effective at capturing CO2, generating calcium carbonate compounds at flue gas temperatures, and water vapor enhances its adsorbability due to a larger CO2 adsorption energy. The current research shows that inorganic sorbents are not only effective in removing the elemental and oxidized forms of mercury but also in mineralizing CO2 at high temperatures into a solid form. The mercury species and carbon dioxide adsorption mechanisms investigated in this research may be utilized in the application of more efficient mercury and carbon dioxide control technologies. Future work will examine the reaction transition state and predict the kinetic data of the carbonation reactions, and, additionally, may prove the hypothesis that H2O molecules play a role as catalysts, increasing reaction rates.

The transfer of electrons to and from a molecule is one of the more fundamental and important chemical processes. One such important example is the reduction-oxidation (redox) cycles in catalysts and enzymes. In the hydrogenase enzymes, adding and removing electrons is one of the key processes for generating H₂ from water molecules. Finding a direct free energy relation between the vertical ionization energies (IE(V)) measured spectroscopically by gas-phase photoelectron spectroscopy and the oxidation potentials (E(1/2)) measured thermodynamically in solution by cyclic voltammetry (CV) for molecules is an important aspect for developing effective catalysts. In this study, a series of organometallic compounds such as metallocenes were used for investigating the free energy relationships and catalysts inspired by the active sites of [FeFe]-hydrogenases enzymes were evaluated for their ability to produce H₂ from electrocatalytic reduction of weak acids. The first part of the dissertation explores metallocenes of the form (η⁵-C₅H₅)₂M (M= Fe, Ru, Os, Co, Ni) as the model for developing the free energy relation between gas phase ionization energies (IE(V)) and solution oxidation potentials (E(1/2)). It was found that computing the electronic properties of Cp₂Fe, Cp₂Ru, and Cp₂Os using VWN-Stoll and OPBE density functional theory (DFT) functional was successful with root mean square deviation (RMSD) of 0.02 eV between the experimental and calculated ionization energies. However, calculated ionization energies of Cp₂Co and Cp₂Ni were less successful with RMSD of 0.3 eV between the experimental and calculated ionization energies. Introduction of the B3LYP or M06 hybrid DFT functionals yielded much improved results (0.1 eV) over the previous combinations of DFT functional for Cp2Co and Cp2Ni. The energy relation between the two experimental measurements was established and further computational studies revealed that the solvation energy was the largest energy contribution between IE(V) and E(1/2) in the five studied metallocenes. The RMSD of the calculated oxidation potentials, after adjusting for the error in gas-phase ionization energies, was 0.09 V. The second part of the dissertation explores a series of catalysts inspired by the active sites of [FeFe]-hydrogenase enzymes; μ-(2,3-pyrazinedithiolato)diironhexacarbonyl (PzDT-cat), Fe₂(μ-X₂C₅H₈O)(CO)₆ (where X = S, Se, Te), and Fe₂(μ-1,3-SC₃H₆X)(CO)₆ (where X = Se and Te) for their ability to produce H₂ from weak acids utilizing the computational techniques and knowledge gained from the metallocene study. Even though the overall electronic perturbation from μ-(1,2-benzenedithiolato)diironhexacarbonyl (BDT-cat) to μ-(2,3-pyridinedithiolato)diironhexacarbonyl (PyDT-cat) to PzDT-cat is found to be small, the reduction potential of PzDT-cat was found to be 0.15 V less negative than that of BDT-cat resulting in less energy required for initiating electrocatalytic H₂ production over the BDT-cat and PyDT-cat. Lower reorganization energy has been achieved by substitutions of larger chalcogens at the Fe₂S₂ core. However, the electrocatalytic production of H₂ from acetic acid in acetonitrile was found to be diminished upon going from analogous S to Se to Te species. This is ascribed to the increase in the Fe–Fe bond distance with a corresponding increase in the size of the chalcogen atoms from S to Se to Te, disfavoring the formation of a carbonyl-bridged structure in the anion which is thought to be critical to the mechanism of H₂ production.

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) has been in focus for several years due to its interesting properties. The possibility for large area chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a requirement for the realization of these different properties in various applications. Unfortunately, there are at present severe problems in the CVD growth of c-BN. The purpose with this research project has been to theoretically investigate, using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the possibility for a layer-by-layer CVD growth of c-BN.  The results, in addition with experimental work by Zhang et al.57,  indicate that plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD), using a BF3-H2-NH3-F2 pulse cycle and a diamond substrate, is a promising method for deposition of c-BN films. The gaseous species will decompose in the plasma and form BFx, H, NHx, and F species (x = 0, 1, 2, 3). The H and F radicals will uphold the cubic structure by completely hydrogenate, or fluorinate, the growing surface. Surface radical sites will appear during the growth process as a result of atomic H, or F, abstraction reactions. However, introduction of energy (e.g., ionic bombardment) is probably necessary to promote removal of H from the surface. The addition of NHx growth species (x = 0, 1, 2) to the B radical sites, and BFx growth species (x = 0, 1, 2) to N radical sites, will then result in a continuous growth of c-BN.

No description available.

Chemical reactions usually involve the conversion of reactants to products by overcoming an energetic barrier. Most commonly, this process can be assisted by adding energy through heat (thermochemistry), light (photochemistry) or electric current (electrochemistry). The fourth option is to overcome the reaction barrier through application of mechanical work, termed mechanochemistry. This method has received much attention from the scientific community in the last decade. Both theoretical and experimental studies have been performed, demonstrating the ability of mechanochemistry to activate reactions, with a strong focus on ringopening reactions. The vast majority of studies have focused on unimolecular reactions involving bond-rupture, which is very intuitively activated by the application of tensile stress. However, bimolecular reactions, which often involve bond formation as well as rupture, have received much less attention. In this thesis, we seek to change this by undertaking an in-depth study of mechanochemical activation of addition reactions to carbon-carbon double bonds, which involve the formation of two single bonds while the double bond becomes a single bond. We observe that large barrier changes can be induced by applying external force to reactions of this type, and the magnitude of these changes can be controlled by the choice of alkene substrate. By studying the changes induced in the geometry of the substrate, we are able to begin explaining the origins of the barrier reduction effect. In addition, by studying the contributions to the barrier change from mechanical work and the contributions from geometry changes, we discover that steric hindrance to a reaction can play a very significant role in the mechanochemical activation of the reaction. / Thesis (Master, Chemistry) -- Queen's University, 2010-11-29 10:43:04.945

In this thesis, we have studied the electronic and optical properties of solar energy m-terials. The studies are performed in the framework of density functional theory (DFT), GW, Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) approaches and Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC). We present four sets of results. In the first part, we report our results on the band gap engineering issues for BiNbO4and NaTaO3, both of which are good photocatalysts. The band gap tuning is required for these materials in order to achieve the maximum solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency. The most common method for the band gap reduction is an introduction of foreign elements. The mono-doping in the system generates electrons or holes states near band edges, which reduce the efficiency of photocatalytic process. Co-doping with anion and cation or anion and anion can provide a clean band gap. We have shown that further band gap reduction can be achieved by double-hole mediated coupling between two anionic dopants. In the second part, the structure and optical properties of (CdSxSe1x)42nanoclusters have been studied. Within this study, the structures of the (CdS)42, (CdSe)42, Cd42Se32S10, Cd42Se22S20, and Cd42Se10S32 clusters have been determined using the simulated annealing method. Factors influencing the band gap value have been analyzed. We show that the gap is most significantly reduced when strongly under coordinated atoms are present on the surface of the nanoclusters. In addition, the band gap depends on the S concentration as well as on the distribution of the S and Se atoms in the clusters. We present the optical absorption spectra calculated with BSE and random phase approximation (RPA) methods based on the GW corrected quasiparticle energies. In the third part, we have employed the state-of-art computational methods to investigate the electronic structure and optical properties of TiO2high pressure polymorphs. GW and BSE methods have been used in these calculations. Our calculations suggest that the band gap of fluorite and pyrite phases have optimal values for the photocatalytic process of decomposing water in the visible light range. In the fourth part we have built a kinetic model of the first water monolayer growth on TiO2(110) using the kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method based on parameters describing water diffusion and dissociation obtained from first principle calculations. Our simulations reproduce the experimental trends and rationalize these observations in terms of a competition between different elementary processes. At high temperatures our simulation shows that the structure is well equilibrated, while at lower temperatures adsorbed water molecules are trapped in hydrogen-bonded chains around pairs of hydroxyl groups, causing the observed higher number of molecularly adsorbed species at lower temperature. / <p>QC 20140603</p>