No Arabic abstract
By means of first-principles calculations, the structural stability, mechanical properties and electronic structure of the newly synthesized incompressible Re2C, Re2N, Re3N and an analogous compound Re3C have been investigated. Our results agree well with the available experimental and theoretical data. The proposed Re3C is shown to be energetically, mechanically and dynamically stable and also incompressible. Furthermore, it is suggested that the incompressibility of these compounds is originated from the strong covalent bonding character with the hybridization of 5d orbital of Re and the 2p orbital of C or N, and a zigzag topology of interconnected bonds, e.g., Re-Re, Re-C or Re-N bonding.
The self-interaction corrected (SIC) local spin-density approximation (LSD) is used to investigate the groundstate valency configuration of the actinide ions in the actinide mono-carbides, AC (A = U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm), and the actinide mono-nitrides, AN. The electronic structure is characterized by a gradually increasing degree of f-electron localization from U to Cm, with the tendency towards localization being slightly stronger in the (more ionic) nitrides compared to the (more covalent) carbides. The itinerant band-picture is found to be adequate for UC and acceptable for UN, whilst a more complex manifold of competing localized and delocalized f-electron configurations underlies the groundstates of NpC, PuC, AmC, NpN, and PuN. The fully localized 5f-electron configuration is realized in CmC (f7), CmN (f7), and AmN (f6). The observed sudden increase in lattice parameter from PuN to AmN is found to be related to the localization transition. The calculated valence electron densities of states are in good agreement with photoemission data.
We have investigated by means of high-pressure x-ray diffraction the structural stability of Pd2Mo3N, Ni2Mo3C0.52N0.48, Co3Mo3C0.62N0.38, and Fe3Mo3C. We have found that they remain stable in their ambient-pressure cubic phase at least up to 48 GPa. All of them have a bulk modulus larger than 330 GPa, being the least compressible material Fe3Mo3C, B0 = 374(3) GPa. In addition, apparently a reduction of compressibility is detected as the carbon content increased. The equation of state for each material is determined. A comparison with other refractory materials indicates that interstitial nitrides and carbides behave as ultra-incompressible materials.
The full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method with the generalized gradient approximation for the exchange-correlation potential (FLAPW-GGA) is used to predict the electronic and elastic properties of the newly discovered superconducting nanolaminate Ti2InC. The band structure, density of states and Fermi surface features are discussed. The optimized lattice parameters, independent elastic constants, bulk and shear moduli, compressibility are evaluated and discussed. The elastic parameters of the polycrystalline Ti2InC ceramics are estimated numerically for the first time.
Based on first-principles calculations, the ground state configuration (Cmma-CH) of hydrogenated Biphenylene sheet (Science, 372, 852, 2021) is carefully identified from hundreds of possible candidates generated by RG2 code (Phys. Rev. B., 97, 014104, 2018). Cmma-CH contains four benzene molecules in its crystalline cell and all of them are inequivalent due to its Cmma symmetry. The hydrogen atoms in Cmma-CH bond to carbon atoms in each benzene with a boat-like (boat-1:DDUDDU) up/down sequence and reversed boat-1 (UUDUUD) sequence in adjacent benzene rings. It is energetically less stable than the previously proposed allotropes (chair, tricycle, stirrup, boat-1, boat-2 and twist-boat) of hydrogenated graphene, but its formation energy from hydrogenating Biphenylene sheet is remarkably lower than those for hydrogenating graphene to graphane. Our results confirm that Cmma-CH is mechanically and dynamically stable 2D hydrocarbon phase which is expectable to be experimentally realized by hydrogenating the synthesized Biphenylene sheet. The HSE06 based band structures show that Cmma-CH is an indirect band gap insulators with a gap of 4.645 eV.
Very recently, two new hexagonal rhenium sub-nitrides Re3N and Re2N, which belong to a rather rare group of known metal-rich (M/N > 1) nitrides of heavy 4d,5d metals, have been successfully synthesized, and their potential technological applications as ultra-incompressible materials have been proposed. In this work we present a detailed ab initio study of novel rhenium sub-nitrides in comparison with hcp-Re and wurtzite-like rhenium mono-nitride ReN, with the purpose to evaluate the trends of the elastic, electronic properties and chemical bonding in the series of these hexagonal systems as a function of the Re/N stoichiometry: Re rightarrow Re3N rightarrow Re2N rightarrow ReN.