| 1. |
- Helmer, Pernilla, 1992-
(författare)
-
A Computational Venture into the Realm of Laminated Borides and their 2D Derivatives
- 2022
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Daily life in modern society is highly dependent on many different materials and techniques for manipulating them, and the technological forefront is constantly pushed further by new discoveries. Hence, materials science is a very important field of research. The field of 2D materials is a rather young subfield within materials science, sprung from the realisation of the first 2D material graphene. 2D materials have, due to their 2D morphology, a very high surface-to-weight ratio, which makes them clearly attractive for applications where the material surface is an important characteristic, such as for energy storage and catalysis.The family of 2D materials called MXenes contrast to other 2D materials through the methods used to synthesise them. Traditionally, 2D materials are mechanically exfoliated from a 3D bulk structure in which the 2D sheets are only kept together by weak van der Waals forces, while MXenes are instead chemically exfoliated by selectively etching the A element from a member of the MAX phase family. A MAX phase is a hexagonal nanolaminated crystal structure on the formula Mn+1AXn, with n = 1 – 4, where the M indicates one or several transition metals, A stands for an "A element", commonly a metalloid, and X stands for C or N. After etching away the A element from the MAX phase the Mn+1Xn-layers are left, making up the MXene. MXenes thus show an unusual structural and chemical diversity, and the composition spectra is even further expanded by atoms and small molecules, called surface terminations, attaching to the MXene surface upon etching. These terminations in turn also influence the properties of the MXene. Hence, the MXene family shows great potential for property tailoring towards many different applications.Besides MAX phases there are many other nanolaminated materials which can not be mechanically exfoliated like graphene, and the natural question arises: can other nanolaminated materials be etched into completely new 2D materials? This thesis is concerned with the so called MAB phases – a family of laminated materials similar to MAX phases, but with B instead of C or N – and their 2D derivatives from a computational perspective. More specifically, paper I concerns the quaternary out-of-plane-ordered MAB (o-MAB) phase Ti4MoSiB2 – which has been etched into a 2D titanium oxide – and its related ternary counterparts Mo5SiB2 and Ti5SiB2. In paper II the properties and possible termination configurations of a 2D MXene-analogue named boridene is studied.Both projects concern novel materials that have recently been experimentally realised, and the main aim of the first principles calculations presented here has been to complement and explain the experimental results. In paper I bonding characteristics of Ti4MoSiB2, Mo5SiB2 and Ti5SiB2 are studied, with the goal of better understanding why the two former are experimentally realisable while the latter has never been reported. In Ti4MoSiB2 Ti and Mo populate two symmetrically inequivalent lattice sites, and the bond between these two sites was found to display a large peak of bonding states just below the Fermi level. This peak is fully populated in Ti4MoSiB2 and Mo5SiB2, but only partially populated in Ti5SiB2, which was identified to be the key difference causing Ti5SiB2 to be unstable.Paper II instead focuses on the 2D material boridene, derived from a 3D MAB phase with in-plane ordering (i-MAB). The i-MAB phase is similar in structure to i-MAX phases, and the boridene show similar structure and properties as the corresponding i-MXene etched from i-MAX, including a high activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The boridene surface was experimentally found to be terminated by O, F and OH species, and the first principles investigations were aimed at screening the possible termination compositions using dynamical stability analysis, and how the electronic properties of boridene are influenced by the terminations. It was found that the terminations are critical to the dynamical stability of boridene, while the specific composition is less important. For termination with only a single species, the material was predicted to be a small bandgap semiconductor with varying bandgap for different species, while for termination with mixed species, the material was found to be metallic.Hence, this thesis has slightly expanded the theoretical knowledge of MAB phases and their first 2D derivative, boridene, by detailed first principles characterisation. Hopefully, these studies can contribute in further development of the considered and related materials, and bring meaningful insight into the behaviour and properties of MAB phases and their 2D derivatives.
|
|
| 2. |
- Carlsson, Adam, 1994-
(författare)
-
Explorations of boron-based materials through theoretical simulations
- 2024
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis focuses on boron-based materials, notable for their structural complexity and unique combination of ceramic and metallic properties. These properties typically result in materials with high mechanical strength, electrical conductivity, and melting points. Among these materials are MAB phases, a family of layered materials comprised of a transition metal (M), an A-element (typically an element from Group 13-14), and boron (B). The layered nature of these materials provides a pathway towards the realization of 2D materials, coined MBenes (or boridene), through chemical exfoliation.While the potential for discovering novel materials is immense, their realization often demands extensive experimental efforts. Theoretical models may here be used as a filter by guiding experimental endeavours. The work presented herein aims to leverage theoretical models and to develop frameworks suitable for reliable thermodynamical predictions in hope of the discovery of additional boron-based materials.First-principles calculations, particularly density functional theory (DFT), have extensively been employed in this thesis to determine the ground state energy of materials and predict their stability or tendency to decompose. However, first-principles calculations typically rely on a pre-defined crystal structure which may be constructed through a priori information or obtained through the use of crystal structure prediction (CSP) frameworks. We herein explore both of these approaches by i) systematically substituting elements in known low-energy structures, and ii) deriving novel low-energy structures by combining CSP with cluster expansion (CE) models.The first approach is herein exemplified when considering the low-energy structures of V3B2 (P4/mbm) and Cr5B3 (I4/mbm). These structures are comprised of two M-sites in addition to boron and thus form the general compositions M’2M’’B2 and M’4M’’B3, respectively. In a follow-up project, this approach was refined by probing the Materials Project database for additional binary boron-based materials with structures of this nature. The M-sites of these candidate structures were further populated with elements ranging from Group 2 to 14 with the aim of discovering novel ternary boron-based materials.Alternatively, a hybrid method of the two techniques is herein explored in which manually designed hexagonal structures were made based on orthorhombic low-energy counterpart structures. A set of structural polymorphs for the M2AB2, M3AB4, M4AB6, MAB, and M4AB4 compositions were studied with varying stacking sequences followed by the evaluation of their thermodynamical stability.The second approach requires little to no structural information but is typically limited to considering fewer material systems due to a higher computational cost. This approach is herein applied to study low-energy basins within the complex phase space of (MoxSc1-x)2AlB2 and (M’xM’’1-x)3AlB4 systems with the aim of finding novel quaternary boron-based materials. A framework, suitable for exploring chemical phase spaces of complex systems, was herein developed by combining CSP and CE models with DFT calculations. The suggested framework is initiated by performing CSP simulations on the n-1 dimensional systems. Identified low-energy structures are subsequently used as input lattices to construct CE models for the n-dimensional system. The low-energy basins found in the n-dimensional system may potentially be used as seed structures in a comprehensive CSP simulation or as input structures for high-throughput screening. This approach, not only provides an efficient pathway to identify low-energy basins of complex material systems, but also attempts to bridge the gap in materials discovery with or without prerequisite information.The aspiration of bridging the gap between state-of-the-art simulation techniques, whether reliant on a priori information or not, is rooted in the intention of enhancing the foundation of materials discovery. The refinement of these theoretical simulations serves to guide and augment experimental efforts for the synthesis of novel materials which is pivotal for addressing and achieving current and future sustainability goals.
|
|
| 3. |
- Nayak, Sanjay Kumar, et al.
(författare)
-
First-principles study on the superconductivity of doped zirconium diborides
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Physical Review Materials. - College Park, MD, United States : American Physical Society. - 2475-9953. ; 6:4
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent experiments [Barbero et al. Phys. Rev. B 95, 094505 (2017)] have established that bulk superconductivity (Tc ∼ 8.3-8.7 K) can be induced in AlB2-type ZrB2 and HfB2, highly covalent refractory ceramics, by vanadium (V) doping. These AlB2-structured phases provide an alternative to earlier diamon-like or diamond-based superconducting and superhard materials. However, the underlying mechanism for doping-induced superconductivity in these materials is yet to be addressed. In this paper, we have used first-principles calculations to probe electronic structure, lattice dynamics, and electron-phonon coupling (EPC) in V-doped ZrB2 and consequently examine the origin of the superconductivity. We find that, while doping-induced stress weakens the EPC, the concurrently induced charges strengthen it. The calculated critical transition temperature (Tc) in electron (and V)-doped ZrB2 is at least one order of magnitude lower than experiments, despite considering the weakest possible Coulomb repulsion between electrons in the Cooper pair, hinting a complex origin of superconductivity in it.
|
|
