Thermodynamic Stabilities of Perfect and Vacancy-Defected Li2 TiO3 (001) Surfaces From First-Principles Analyses

Thumbnail Image
Date
2019-05-31
Authors
Jiang, Yan
Shi, Yanli
Xiang, Xiaogang
Qi, Jianqi
Han, Yong
Liao, Zhijun
Lu, Tiecheng
Major Professor
Advisor
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Authors
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Organizational Unit
Ames National Laboratory

Ames National Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), operated by and located on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

For more than 70 years, the Ames National Laboratory has successfully partnered with Iowa State University, and is unique among the 17 DOE laboratories in that it is physically located on the campus of a major research university. Many of the scientists and administrators at the Laboratory also hold faculty positions at the University and the Laboratory has access to both undergraduate and graduate student talent.

Organizational Unit
Physics and Astronomy
Physics and astronomy are basic natural sciences which attempt to describe and provide an understanding of both our world and our universe. Physics serves as the underpinning of many different disciplines including the other natural sciences and technological areas.
Journal Issue
Is Version Of
Versions
Series
Department
Ames National LaboratoryPhysics and Astronomy
Abstract

Lithium titanate (Li2TiO3) is an attractive ceramic material for various industrial applications, particularly as one of the most promising breeder blanket materials in future nuclear-fusion reactors. Previously reported studies mainly focus on sintered polycrystalline samples of Li2TiO3. Surface structure of the single-crystal form is rarely reported, although the information of surface structures and stabilities can be critical for further understanding the surface-associated processes. In this work, we perform extensive first-principles density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations to obtain the surface energies of Li2TiO3 (001) with different surface terminations. For four perfect (defect-free) Li-, O-, or LiTi-terminated (001) surfaces, Li- or O-terminated (001) surfaces can be most stable in limited chemical-potential ranges corresponding to certain experimental conditions, while a LiTi-terminated (001) surface is always unfavorable relative to Li or O terminations. By calculating the total energies of various possible configurations with surface vacancies, we determine the energetically most favorable vacancy-defected surface terminations. From the corresponding ternary phase diagram, we analyze the stability of a specific surface termination with vacancies as well as the possible formation of oxides. Our stability analysis together with DFT-simulated STM images reveals that a 1/3-monolayer-Li-terminated surface most likely corresponds to the ordered hexagonal-like pattern observed previously in STM experiments. For a 1/2-monolayer-Li-terminated surface, the most stable surface structure from our DFT calculations contrasts with previous results from an empirical-potential model.

Comments
Description
Keywords
Citation
DOI
Copyright
Collections