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Grüneis, Andreas

Publications and source records attributed to Grüneis, Andreas.

6 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Physisorption of Water on Graphene: Subchemical Accuracy from Many-Body Electronic Structure Methods

According to the article, wet carbon interfaces are ubiquitous in the natural world and exhibit anomalous properties, which could be exploited by emerging technologies. However, progress is limited by lack of understanding at the molecular level. Remarkably, even for the most fundamental system (a single water molecule interacting with graphene), there is no consensus on the nature of the interaction. We tackle this by performing an extensive set of complementary state-of-the-art computer simulations on some of the world’s largest supercomputers. From this effort a consensus on the water–graphene interaction strength has been obtained. Our results have significant impact for the physical understanding, as they indicate that the interaction is weaker than predicted previously. They also pave the way for more accurate and reliable studies of liquid water at carbon interfaces.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2017

Properties of the water to boron nitride interaction: From zero to two dimensions with benchmark accuracy

Molecular adsorption on surfaces plays an important part in catalysis, corrosion, desalination, and various other processes that are relevant to industry and in nature. As a complement to experiments, accurate adsorption energies can be obtained using various sophisticated electronic structure methods that can now be applied to periodic systems. The adsorption energy of water on boron nitride substrates, going from zero to 2-dimensional periodicity, is particularly interesting as it calls for an accurate treatment of polarizable electrostatics and dispersion interactions, as well as posing a practical challenge to experiments and electronic structure methods. Here, we present reference adsorption energies, static polarizabilities, and dynamic polarizabilities, for water on BN substrates of varying size and dimension. Adsorption energies are computed with coupled cluster theory, fixed-node quantum Monte Carlo (FNQMC), the random phase approximation, and second order Møller-Plesset theory. These wavefunction based correlated methods are found to agree in molecular as well as periodic systems. The best estimate of the water/h-BN adsorption energy is -107 ± 7 meV from FNQMC. In addition, the water adsorption energy on the BN substrates could be expected to grow monotonically with the size of the substrate due to increased dispersion interactions, but interestingly, this is not the case here. This peculiar finding is explained using the static polarizabilities and molecular dispersion coefficients of the systems, as computed from time-dependent density functional theory (DFT). Dynamic as well as static polarizabilities are found to be highly anisotropic in these systems. Finally, the many-body dispersion method in DFT emerges as a particularly useful estimation of finite size effects for other expensive, many-body wavefunction based methods.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Perspective: Explicitly correlated electronic structure theory for complex systems

The explicitly correlated approach is one of the most important breakthroughs in ab initio electronic structure theory, providing arguably the most compact, accurate, and efficient ansatz for describing the correlated motion of electrons. Since Hylleraas first used an explicitly correlated wave function for the He atom in 1929, numerous attempts have been made to tackle the significant challenges involved in constructing practical explicitly correlated methods that are applicable to larger systems. These include identifying suitable mathematical forms of a correlated wave function and an efficient evaluation of many-electron integrals. R12 theory, which employs the resolution of the identity approximation, emerged in 1985, followed by the introduction of novel correlation factors and wave function ansätze, leading to the establishment of F12 theory in the 2000s. Rapid progress in recent years has significantly extended the application range of explicitly correlated theory, offering the potential of an accurate wave-function treatment of complex systems such as photosystems and semiconductors. In conclusion, this perspective surveys explicitly correlated electronic structure theory, with an emphasis on recent stochastic and deterministic approaches that hold significant promise for applications to large and complex systems including solids.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

From plane waves to local Gaussians for the simulation of correlated periodic systems

Here, we present a simple, robust, and black-box approach to the implementation and use of local, periodic, atom-centered Gaussian basis functions within a plane wave code, in a computationally efficient manner. The procedure outlined is based on the representation of the Gaussians within a finite bandwidth by their underlying plane wave coefficients. The core region is handled within the projected augment wave framework, by pseudizing the Gaussian functions within a cutoff radius around each nucleus, smoothing the functions so that they are faithfully represented by a plane wave basis with only moderate kinetic energy cutoff. To mitigate the effects of the basis set superposition error and incompleteness at the mean-field level introduced by the Gaussian basis, we also propose a hybrid approach, whereby the complete occupied space is first converged within a large plane wave basis, and the Gaussian basis used to construct a complementary virtual space for the application of correlated methods. We demonstrate that these pseudized Gaussians yield compact and systematically improvable spaces with an accuracy comparable to their non-pseudized Gaussian counterparts. A key advantage of the described method is its ability to efficiently capture and describe electronic correlation effects of weakly bound and low-dimensional systems, where plane waves are not sufficiently compact or able to be truncated without unphysical artifacts. We investigate the accuracy of the pseudized Gaussians for the water dimer interaction, neon solid, and water adsorption on a LiH surface, at the level of second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

A coupled cluster and Møller-Plesset perturbation theory study of the pressure induced phase transition in the LiH crystal

We employ Hartree–Fock, second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation, coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) as well as CCSD plus perturbative triples (CCSD(T)) theory to study the pressure induced transition from the rocksalt to the cesium chloride crystal structure in LiH. We show that the calculated transition pressure converges rapidly in this series of increasingly accurate many-electron wave function based theories. Using CCSD(T) theory, we predict a transition pressure for the structural phase transition in the LiH crystal of 340 GPa. Furthermore, we investigate the potential energy surface for this transition in the parameter space of the Buerger path.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗