No Arabic abstract
Great enthusiasm in single atom catalysts (SACs) for the N2 reduction reaction (NRR) has been aroused by the discovery of Metal (M)-Nx as a promising catalytic center. However,the performance of available SACs,including poor activity and selectivity,is far away from the industrial requirement because of the inappropriate adsorption behaviors of the catalytic centers. Through the first principles high throughput screening, we find that the rational construction of Fe-Fe dual atom centered site distributed on graphite carbon nitride (Fe2/gCN) compromises the ability to adsorb N2H and NH2, achieving the best NRR performance among 23 different transition metal (TM) centers. Our results show that Fe2/gCN can achieve a Faradic efficiency of 100% for NH3 production. Impressively, the limiting potential of Fe2/gCN is estimated as low as -0.13 V, which is hitherto the lowest value among the reported theoretical results. Multiple level descriptors (excess electrons on the adsorbed N2 and integrated crystal orbital Hamilton population) shed light on the origin of NRR activity from the view of energy, electronic structure, and basic characteristics. As a ubiquitous issue during electrocatalytic NRR, ammonia contamination originating from the substrate decomposition can be surmounted. Our predictions offer a new platform for electrocatalytic synthesis of NH3, contributing to further elucidate the structure-performance correlations.
Nano-materials, such as metal-organic frameworks, have been considered to capture CO$_2$. However, their application has been limited largely because they exhibit poor selectivity for flue gases and low capture capacity under low pressures. We perform a high-throughput screening for selective CO$_2$ capture from flue gases by using first principles thermodynamics. We find that elements with empty d orbitals selectively attract CO$_2$ from gaseous mixtures under low CO$_2$ pressures at 300 K and release it at ~450 K. CO$_2$ binding to elements involves hybridization of the metal d orbitals with the CO$_2$ $pi$ orbitals and CO$_2$-transition metal complexes were observed in experiments. This result allows us to perform high-throughput screening to discover novel promising CO$_2$ capture materials with empty d orbitals and predict their capture performance under various conditions. Moreover, these findings provide physical insights into selective CO$_2$ capture and open a new path to explore CO$_2$ capture materials.
Intrinsic polar metals are rare, especially in oxides, because free electrons screen electric fields in a metal and eliminate the internal dipoles that are needed to break inversion symmetry. Here we use first-principles high-throughput structure screening to predict a new polar metal in bulk and thin film forms. After screening more than 1000 different crystal structures, we find that ordered BiPbTi2O6 can crystallize in three polar and metallic structures, which can be transformed between via pressure or strain. In a heterostructure of layered BiPbTi2O6 and PbTiO3, multiple states with different relative orientations of BiPbTi2O6 polar displacements, and PbTiO3 polarization, can be stabilized. At room temperature, the interfacial coupling enables electric fields to first switch PbTiO3 polarization and subsequently drive 180{deg} change of BiPbTi2O6 polar displacements. At low temperatures, the heterostructure provides a tunable tunnelling barrier and might be used in multi-state memory devices.
The discovery of intrinsic magnetic topological order in $rm MnBi_2Te_4$ has invigorated the search for materials with coexisting magnetic and topological phases. These multi-order quantum materials are expected to exhibit new topological phases that can be tuned with magnetic fields, but the search for such materials is stymied by difficulties in predicting magnetic structure and stability. Here, we compute over 27,000 unique magnetic orderings for over 3,000 transition metal oxides in the Materials Project database to determine their magnetic ground states and estimate their effective exchange parameters and critical temperatures. We perform a high-throughput band topology analysis of centrosymmetric magnetic materials, calculate topological invariants, and identify 18 new candidate ferromagnetic topological semimetals, axion insulators, and antiferromagnetic topological insulators. To accelerate future efforts, machine learning classifiers are trained to predict both magnetic ground states and magnetic topological order without requiring first-principles calculations.
Herein, we performed ab initio screening to identify the best doping of LiNiO2 to achieve improved cycle performance in lithium ion batteries. The interlayer interaction that dominates the c-axis contraction and overall performance was captured well by density functional theory using van der Waals exchange-correlation functionals. The screening indicated that Nb-doping is promising for improving cycle performance. To extract qualitative reasonings, we performed data analysis in a materials informatics manner to obtain a reasonable regression to reproduce the obtained results. LASSO analysis implied that the charge density between the layers in the discharged state is the dominant factor influencing cycle performance.
Based on irreducible representations (or symmetry eigenvalues) and compatibility relations, a material can be predicted to be a topological/trivial insulator [satisfying compatibility relations] or a topological semimetal [violating compatibility relations]. However, Weyl semimetals usually go beyond this symmetry-based strategy. In other words, Weyl nodes could emerge in a material, no matter if its occupied bands satisfy compatibility relations, or if the symmetry indicators are zero. In this work, we propose a new topological invariant $chi$ for the systems with S$_4$ symmetry [i.e., the improper rotation S$_4$ ($equiv$ IC$_{4z}$) is a proper four-fold rotation (C$_{4z}$) followed by inversion (I)], which can be used to diagnose the Weyl semimetal phase. Moreover, $chi$ can be easily computed through the one-dimensional Wilson-loop technique. By applying this method to the high-throughput screening in first-principles calculations, we predict a lot of Weyl semimetals in both nonmagnetic and magnetic compounds. Various interesting properties (e.g. magnetic frustration effects, superconductivity and spin-glass order, etc.) are found in predicted Weyl semimetals, which provide realistic platforms for future experimental study of the interplay between Weyl fermions and other exotic states.