Engineering topics
Carter, Emily A
Publications and source records attributed to Carter, Emily A.
Oxygen Transport in Perovskite-Type Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Materials: Insights from Quantum Mechanics
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ACCURATE BOND ENERGIES OF BIODIESEL METHYL ESTERS FROM MULTIREFERENCE AVERAGED COUPLED-PAIR FUNCTIONAL CALCULATIONS
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First-Principles Study of Lanthanum Strontium Manganite: Insights into Electronic Structure and Oxygen Vacancy Formation
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Theoretical Investigation of H₂ Oxidation on the Sr 2 Fe 1.5 Mo 0.5 O 6 (001) Perovskite Surface Under Anodic Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Conditions
Periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations and microkinetic modeling are used to investigate the electrochemical oxidation of H₂ fuel on the (001) surface of Sr 2 Fe 1.5 Mo 0.5 O 6 (SFMO) perovskite under anodic solid oxide fuel cell conditions. Three surface models with different Fe/Mo ratios in the topmost layer-identified by ab initio thermodynamic analysis-are used to investigate the H₂ oxidation mechanism. A microkinetic analysis that considers the effects of anode bias potential suggests that a higher Mo concentration in the surface increases the activity of the surface toward H₂ oxidation. At operating voltage and anodic SOFC conditions, the model predicts that water desorption is rate-controlling and that stabilizing the oxygen vacancy structure increases the overall rate for H₂ oxidation. Although we find that Mo plays a crucial role in improving catalytic activity of SFMO, under fuel cell operating conditions, the Mo content in the surface layer tends to be very low. On the basis of these results and in agreement with previous experimental observations, a strategy for improving the overall electrochemical performance of SFMO is increasing the Mo content or adding small amounts of an active transition metal, such as Ni, to the surface to lower the oxygen vacancy formation energy of the SFMO surface.
Size-extensivity-corrected multireference configuration interaction schemes to accurately predict bond dissociation energies of oxygenated hydrocarbons
Oxygenated hydrocarbons play important roles in combustion science as renewable fuels and additives, but many details about their combustion chemistry remain poorly understood. Although many methods exist for computing accurate electronic energies of molecules at equilibrium geometries, a consistent description of entire combustion reaction potential energy surfaces (PESs) requires multireference correlated wavefunction theories. Here we use bond dissociation energies (BDEs) as a foundational metric to benchmark methods based on multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) for several classes of oxygenated compounds (alcohols, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, and methyl esters). We compare results from multireference singles and doubles configuration interaction to those utilizing a posteriori and a priori size-extensivity corrections, benchmarked against experiment and coupled cluster theory. We demonstrate that size-extensivity corrections are necessary for chemically accurate BDE predictions even in relatively small molecules and furnish examples of unphysical BDE predictions resulting from using too-small orbital active spaces. We also outline the specific challenges in using MRCI methods for carbonyl-containing compounds. The resulting complete basis set extrapolated, size-extensivity-corrected MRCI scheme produces BDEs generally accurate to within 1 kcal/mol, laying the foundation for this scheme's use on larger molecules and for more complex regions of combustion PESs.
Analysis of and remedies for unphysical ground states of the multireference averaged coupled-pair functional
A Multireference Configuration Interaction (MRCI) wavefunction includes both static and dynamic electron correlation. MRCI's well-known flaw, a lack of size extensivity, can be ameliorated with the Multireference Averaged Coupled-Pair Functional (MRACPF). However, the original MRACPF is frequently unstable, sometimes producing unphysical results. The more Multireference Averaged Quadratic Coupled-Cluster and MRACPF2 functionals also occasionally exhibit unphysical behavior. We find that these instabilities are avoided crossings with unphysical solutions to the MRACPF equations. We present two approaches to avoid the undesirable unphysical solutions.
Ab initio DFT+U analysis of oxygen transport in LaCoO 3 : the effect of Co 3+ magnetic states
Increased low spin Co 3+ content in LaCoO 3 leads to higher oxygen diffusivity by promoting larger oxygen vacancy concentrations.
Ab initio evaluation of oxygen diffusivity in LaFeO3: the role of lanthanum vacancies
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Accurate Bond Energies of Hydrocarbons from Complete Basis Set Extrapolated Multi-Reference Singles and Doubles Configuration Interaction
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Quantum mechanical embedding theory based on a unique embedding potential
We remove the nonuniqueness of the embedding potential that exists in most previous quantum mechanical embedding schemes by letting the environment and embedded region share a common embedding (interaction) potential. To efficiently solve for the embedding potential, an optimized effective potential method is derived. This embedding potential, which eschews use of approximate kinetic energy density functionals, is then used to describe the environment while a correlated wavefunction (CW) treatment of the embedded region is employed. We first demonstrate the accuracy of this new embedded CW (ECW) method by calculating the van der Waals binding energy curve between a hydrogen molecule and a hydrogen chain. We then examine the prototypical adsorption of CO on a metal surface, here the Cu(111) surface. In addition to obtaining proper site ordering (top site most stable) and binding energies within this theory, the ECW exhibits dramatic changes in the p-character of the CO 4{sigma} and 5{sigma} orbitals upon adsorption that agree very well with x-ray emission spectra, providing further validation of the theory. Finally, we generalize our embedding theory to spin-polarized quantum systems and discuss the connection between our theory and partition density functional theory.