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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Theoretical Correlation of Elemental Distribution of Nd and Pr in Ce-Fe-B Microstructure With Hard Magnetic Properties

Relatively resource-rich but property inferior-Ce-Fe-B magnet can be improved by partial replacement of Ce by Nd and/or Pr. In addition to the amount of Nd/Pr, their distribution profile in microstructure plays an important role. From our first principles density functional theory (DFT) calculation, the substitution energy of Ce by Pr/Nd is negative in Ce 2 Fe 14 B (2:14:1) while that for laves phase, CeFe 2 is positive, implying that Nd/Pr stabilize 2:14:1 and suppress the formation of the CeFe 2 phase. Further, micromagnetic simulation indicates that homogenized distribution of Nd/Pr improves squareness of demagnetization curve, while core (Ce-rich)-shell (Nd/Pr-rich) 2:14:1 grain structure enhances coercivity. Magnetic properties of Ce-Fe-B can be optimized by manipulating distribution profile of chemical element in microstructure based on their subtle difference in thermodynamic property, which is an effective pathway to design optimized chemical composition and processing route for high-performance magnet.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2018

Aladyn - Adaptive Neural Network Molecular Dynamics Simulation Code: Computational Materials Mini-Application

This report provides an overview and commands description of the Computational Materials mini-application, Aladyn. Aladyn is a simple molecular dynamics code written in FORTRAN 2008, which is designed to demonstrate the use of adaptive neural networks (ANNs) in atomistic simulations. The role of ANNs is to reproduce the very complex energy landscape resulting from the atomic interactions in materials with the accuracy of quantum mechanics-based energy calculations. The ANN is trained on a large set of atomic structures calculated using the density functional theory (DFT) method. The Aladyn code is being released to serve as a training testbed for students and professors in academia to explore possible optimization algorithms for parallel computing on multicore central processing unit (CPU) computers or computers utilizing many core architectures based on graphic processing units (GPUs). The effort is related to the High Performance Computing Incubator (HPCI) project at NASA Langley Research Center.

Yamakov, Vesselin I.↗
DOE OSTI2023

A First Principles Approach to Spectral Phonon Transport in Heterostructures

Understanding thermal transport across interfaces which give rise to a thermal resistance (also known as Kapitza resistance) is a critical issue affecting the development of nanotechnologies. Much modern and emergent nanotechnology consist of adjacent materials, and phonon mediated heat transfer governs thermal behavior across internal interfaces in these devices. The physics of thermal transport in solids are governed both by phenomena occurring at the atomic scale and interactions with the material's microstructure. The forecasting of fundamental quantities such as temperature, heat flux and thermal conductivity typically employs the semi-classical Boltzmann transport equation to predict the macroscopic behavior of materials in terms of the microscopic dynamics of its heat carriers. Kapitza resistance was first discovered in liquid helium experiments and has led to a fundamental research thrust in micro and nano-scale heat transport, the behavior of thermal carriers across internal interfaces. Thermal interfacial resistance (TIR) is a widely studied phenomenon, first engaged by Swartz and Pohl through their development of the acoustic and diffuse mismatch methods, then continued through myriad efforts with varying methods and approaches in an attempt to resolve carrier behavior at thermal interfaces. Many of the fundamental approaches to TIR have been at the nanoscale, and research is conducted with molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theory (DFT) methods. The limitations of these methods is system size; atomistic methods tend to be limited to system sizes of 100,000 atoms or less. Larger length-scale methods have also been pursued, based on the principles of acoustic or diffuse mismatch, but not all include simulation of TIR using a full phonon band spectrum, or temperature dependent methods. Our approach to enabling phonon transport in layered materials draws upon our previous work of demonstrating spectrally coupled phonon transport in homogeneous and heterogeneous materials. We use a semi-analytical approach in which the Bose-Einstein (B-E) statistics set the strength of the phonon radiance in a frequency group, but the B-E statistics are informed with information from the transport system. The B-E statistics in a single frequency group feels the influence of all the groups through the spatial temperature. We also include a new field term which is an indicator of the amount of non-equilibrium behavior of the phonon spectrum---this is added to the phonon source term in all groups to ensure closure and conservation of energy, as the phonon groups in the transport system and the analytical systems are coupled. This work builds upon our previous approach by adding a phonon coupling term at an internal interface, using the principles of the DMM through transmission and reflection coefficients. In this work, the coefficients are determined through computing a common temperature at the interface, influenced by the phonon band structure of both materials, in effect, providing mixing between the two material systems and using the common temperature to set the strength of the phonon radiance at the boundaries on either side of the interface. Our approach uses material properties computed along various crystallographic orientations, and while some isotropy is built into the interface condition, the material properties weight the phonon distributions in the proper crystalline direction. Greater resolution of phonon behavior in proximity to an interface, and more accurate predictions of TIR are obtained. While it is true the assumption of diffuse mismatch can yield inconsistent results compared to experiment especially at low temperatures, this work focuses on room temperature and beyond effects, for future applications in nuclear fuel, or thermoelectric devices; a modified mismatch approach may be feasible if applied properly. Additionally, our methods focus on bridging mesoscale to engineering scale

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

NbTaV_BCC_SolidSolution_128atoms_VASP6

We performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations for body-centered-cubic (BCC) structures with 128 lattices sites of solid solution ternary alloys niobium-tantalum-vanadium (Nb-Ta-V). The first-principle code that has been used to run the calculations is the closed-source Vienna Ab-Initio Simulation Package (VASP). The calculations have been collected by sampling chemical compositions across the entire compositional range. The chemical compositions have been sampled by progressively changing the number of atoms per constituent by 8. For each chemical composition of binaries and ternaries, the first-principle calculations have been run for 100 randomized arrangements of the constituents on the BCC lattice sites. We collected data for a total of 10,500 randomized atomic structures over 105 chemical compositions. The calculations have been collected on NERSC-Perlmutter using the VASP 6.3.2. The VASP calculations for every atomic structure have been performed in 2 main steps: 1. Starting from an ideal body-centered-cubic (BCC) structure, geometry optimization with low precision has been executed to perform a preliminary optimization of the atomic structure. The output for this calculations is available in the files 0.CONTCAR, 0.OUTCAR, rlx1.out. 2. Using the atomic structure resulting from the preliminary geometry optimization, a second geometry optimization has been performed using normal precision. The output for this calculations is available in the files CONTCAR, OUTCAR, rlx2.out, vaspout.h5, and vasprun.xml. Every chemical composition sampled across the composition range in the dataset has its own directory. The convention used to name the directories for ternary alloys is AXBYCZ, where A, B, and C refer to the constituents, and X, Y, and Z are positive integers that represent the number of atoms for each constituent and their values still sum up to 128. Each atomic structure associated with a specific chemical composition has its own sub-directory within the directory of the corresponding chemical composition. The sub-directories for each atomic structure for each chemical composition are named 'case-*', where * is a positive integer that spans all the values from 1 through 100, extremes included. The files contained in each sub-directory 'case-*' for each atomic structure are as follows: 1. INCAR: input file that contains various parameters and settings for controlling the behavior of the electronic structure calculations 2. 0.POSCAR: input file that defines the atomic structure of a system 3. 0.CONTCAR: output file that provides the atomic positions and cell parameters after the first geometry optimization has been run with the precision variable set to PREC=Low in the INCAR file 4. 0.OUTCAR: output file that contains detailed information about the progress of a calculation after the first geometry optimization has been run with the precision variable set to PREC=Low in the INCAR file 5. rlx1.out: file with diagnostic information about the execution of the first geometry optimization with precision variable set to PREC=Low in the INCAR file 6. POSCAR: input file that defines the atomic structure of a system after the first geometry optimization has been run at low precision. This represents the input for the second geometry optimization run with the precision variable set to PREC=Normal in the INCAR file 7. CONTCAR: output file that provides the atomic positions and cell parameters after the second geometry optimization has been run with the precision variable set to PREC=Normal in the INCAR file 8. OUTCARL: output file that contains detailed information about the progress of a calculation after the second geometry optimization has been run with the precision variable set to PREC=Normal in the INCAR file 9. rlx2.out: file with diagnostic information about the execution of the second geometry optimization with precision variable set to PREC=Normal in the INCAR file 10. vaspout.h5: hierarchical HDF5 file containing the inputs and outputs of a VASP calculation. To analyze the data in this file we recommend using py4vasp. This file is only produced if the VASP version used is compiled with HDF5 support 11. vasprun.xml: contains similar information to OUTCAR, but in an xml format. This research is sponsored by the Artificial Intelligence Initiative as part of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. This work used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725, under Directorate Discretionary awards MAT025 (Materials Science) and LRN026 (Machine Learning), and INCITE award MAT201. This work also used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, under award ERCAP0025216.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

CALPHAD modeling of uranium nitride (UN) fabrication routes enabled by first-principles calculations

The thermochemical details of fabricating uranium nitride (UN) by ammonolysis of uranium tetraflouride (UF 4 ) were determined using density functional theory (DFT) and CALculation of PHAse Diagrams (CALPHAD) computational methods. The thermochemical data of all binary, ternary, and quaternary U-H-N-F phases were computed using DFT, and the data for the phases that have not been measured experimentally, including UN 2 and NH 4 F(g), were combined with existing experimentally-determined data for CALPHAD modeling. The DFT data were benchmarked using experimental Gibbs energy of reaction and experimental thermochemical data for individual species. Phase diagrams relevant to the ammonolysis reaction are depicted, showing regions of stability for solid U-N, U-F and U-N-F phases. An unidentified phase produced in a previous experiment was identified as UN 0.95 F 1.2 (UNF) by comparing its X-ray diffraction spectrum to the experimental spectrum, and its formation during the fabrication of UN from UF 4 is supported by the simulated phase diagram. Here, it is calculated that UN 2 can be produced by the ammonolysis of UF 4 , but requires elevated temperatures, high NH 3 (g) partial pressure, and large amounts of flowing NH 3 (g) to avoid solid flu oride impurities in the uranium nitride. Likewise, U 2 N 3 can be produced instead at temperatures greater than 980 K. The use of silane (SiH 4 ) gas was investigated as a potential additive in the ammonolysis fabrication route to speed removal of fluorine. The addition of SiH 4 (g) offers little advantage to the removal of fluorine, and adds the complication of Si 3 N 4 formation. The use of DFT to fill in missing data to perform CALPHAD calculations demonstrated here allows for the determination of more comprehensive and trustworthy phase diagrams than the use of existing experimental data alone.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Investigation of the Effect of Framework Flexibility on Adsorption in SIFSIX-3-Cu using a Machine-Learned Force Field

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a promising class of adsorbents. The performance of MOF sorbents relies on high selectivity and low regeneration energy. This work focuses on the use of machine learned force fields (MLFFs) to model adsorption in a flexible MOF, SIFSIX-3-Cu. A DeePMD-based MLFF was trained to reproduce DFT (PBE+D3) energies, forces, and stresses, using an iterative sampling scheme combining sampling based on molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo, and geometry optimization to capture both attractive and repulsive regions of the potential energy surface. Flexibility of the MOF was explicitly included in this model. Hybrid Monte Carlo/molecular dynamics (MC/MD) simulations using the MLFF predicted adsorption isotherms in good agreement with experimental data for a range of pressures (40 Pa – 104 Pa) in contrast to rigid models, which overpredict CO2 adsorption at low pressures. The improvement was the result of a description of the variability of fluorine-fluorine diagonal distances at adsorption sites. This detailed description of flexibility afforded by the MLFF resulted in more accurate predictions adsorption isotherms when compared to the experimentally measured values. These results underscore the importance of including framework flexibility when modeling adsorption phenomena in MOFs, particularly for low pressure applications and provide a robust procedure for training MLFF models for MOFs.

Atomistic Simulation↗
DOE OSTI2021

Toward alcohol synthesis from CO hydrogenation on Cu(111)-supported MoS 2 – predictions from DFT+KMC

In the quest for cheap and efficient catalysts for alcohol synthesis from syngas, a material of interest is single-layer MoS2 owing to its low cost, abundancy, and flexible structure. Because of the inertness of its basal plane, however, it is essential to find ways that make it catalytically active. Herein, by means of density functional theory based calculations of reaction pathways and activation energy barriers and accompanying kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, we show that while S vacancy row structures activate the MoS 2 basal plane, further enhancement of chemical activity and selectivity can be achieved by interfacing the MoS 2 layer with a metallic support. When defect-laden MoS2 is grown on Cu(111), there is not only an increase in the active region (surface area of active sites) but also charge transfer from Cu to MoS 2 , resulting in a shift of the Fermi level such that the frontier states (d orbitals of the exposed Mo atoms) appear close to it, making the MoS 2 /Cu(111) system ready for catalytic activity. Finally, our calculated thermodynamics of reaction pathways lead to the conclusion that the Cu(111) substrate promotes both methanol and ethanol as the products, while kinetic Monte Carlo simulations suggest a high selectivity toward the formation of ethanol.

2D materials↗
DOE OSTI2021

Confinement effects on the solvation structure of solvated alkaline metal cations in a single-digit 1T-MoS 2 nanochannel: A first-principles study

Confinement plays an important role in determining ion transport in porous materials, which, in turn, may influence the performance of many energy storage and desalination devices. In this work, we combined density functional theory (DFT) with an implicit solvation model and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) to investigate the effects of nanoconfinement on several solvated alkaline metal cations in a single-digit 1T-MoS 2 nanochannel. Our DFT calculations with a solvation model indicated that cations with stronger hydration energy introduce a higher number of co-intercalated water molecules into the channel, consistent with early experimental observation obtained for MXene (2D transition metal carbide) channels. The predicted optimal water numbers for the cations were then used for AIMD simulations that explicitly include the effects of the solvent. When compared with the cations in bulk solution, our simulations showed that the hydration structure and coordination number (CN) of the solvated cations confined in the MoS 2 channel can be significantly altered. Further, we found that larger cations with weaker hydration energy (K + , Rb + , and Cs + ) exhibited a distinctive CN decrease under confinement, while smaller cations (Li + and Na + ) retained a similar hydration shell as in the bulk solution. More specifically, the hydration shell of large cations (K + , Rb + , and Cs + ) in MoS 2 showed similar features of the coordination angle to the bulk, which suggests the partially broken hydration shell with no geometry change under confinement. Our simulations provided insights into the change of the hydration structure of alkaline metal cations under confinement, which may have important implications on their transport in the 1T-MoS 2 channel.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Charting C–C coupling pathways in electrochemical CO 2 reduction on Cu(111) using embedded correlated wavefunction theory

The electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) powered by excess zero-carbon-emission electricity to produce especially multicarbon (C 2+ ) products could contribute to a carbon-neutral to carbon-negative economy. Foundational to the rational design of efficient, selective CO 2 RR electrocatalysts is mechanistic analysis of the best metal catalyst thus far identified, namely, copper (Cu), via quantum mechanical computations to complement experiments. Here, we apply embedded correlated wavefunction (ECW) theory, which regionally corrects the electron exchange-correlation error in density functional theory (DFT) approximations, to examine multiple C–C coupling steps involving adsorbed CO (*CO) and its hydrogenated derivatives on the most ubiquitous facet, Cu(111). We predict that two adsorbed hydrogenated CO species, either *COH or *CHO, are necessary precursors for C–C bond formation. The three kinetically feasible pathways involving these species yield all three possible products: *COH–CHO, *COH–*COH, and *OCH–*OCH. The most kinetically favorable path forms *COH–CHO. In contrast, standard DFT approximations arrive at qualitatively different conclusions, namely, that only *CO and *COH will prevail on the surface and their C–C coupling paths produce only *COH–*COH and *CO–*CO, with a preference for the first product. This work demonstrates the importance of applying qualitatively and quantitatively accurate quantum mechanical method to simulate electrochemistry in order ultimately to shed light on ways to enhance selectivity toward C 2+ product formation via CO 2 RR electrocatalysts.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Molecular insights into CO 2 -to-bicarbonate transformation in functionalized anion exchange ionomers for electrochemical separations

Bipolar membrane (BPM) electrochemical processes are a promising platform for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) separations, but the molecular level thermodynamic and kinetic understanding of CO 2 -to-bicarbonate (HCO 3 − ) transformation remain poorly understood. This study employs a multiscale computational approach to systematically explore the adsorption and reactive transformation of CO 2 in five anion exchange ionomer systems. Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results demonstrate that polymers with imidazolium groups significantly reduce CO 2 diffusion and enhance (OH − )–CO 2 interactions due to stronger electrostatic and π-interactions. Compared to the commonly used quaternary ammonium ionomers, imidazolium-functionalized ionomers show improved CO 2 proximity and interaction strength. Ab initio MD and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the benzyl-substituted imidazolium (IM-Ben) substantially reduces the energy barrier for HCO 3 − formation (∼72 meV lower) compared to the alkyl-substituted IM-nBu, while also mitigating imidazolium deprotonation under moderate hydration conditions. Transition state analysis shows IM-Ben forms more extensive hydrogen-bonding networks, which stabilize the transition state structure and contribute to a lower energy barrier for bicarbonate formation. These findings highlight the advantage of the adjacent benzyl moiety in enabling efficient CO 2 -to-bicarbonate transformation via hydrated hydroxide ion counterions, offering mechanistic insights and clear molecular design principles for optimizing anion exchange ionomers at bipolar membrane interfaces for electrochemical CO 2 separation applications.

Bipolar membranes, Reactive transformation of CO2,↗
DOE OSTI2024

Shock Hugoniot calculations using on-the-fly machine learned force fields with ab initio accuracy

We present a framework for computing the shock Hugoniot using on-the-fly machine learned force field (MLFF) molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, we employ an MLFF model based on the kernel method and Bayesian linear regression to compute the free energy, atomic forces, and pressure, in conjunction with a linear regression model between the internal and free energies to compute the internal energy, with all training data generated from Kohn–Sham density functional theory (DFT). We verify the accuracy of the formalism by comparing the Hugoniot for carbon with recent Kohn–Sham DFT results in the literature. In so doing, we demonstrate that Kohn–Sham calculations for the Hugoniot can be accelerated by up to two orders of magnitude, while retaining ab initio accuracy. We apply this framework to calculate the Hugoniots of 14 materials in the FPEOS database, comprising 9 single elements and 5 compounds, between temperatures of 10 kK and 2 MK. We find good agreement with first principles results in the literature while providing tighter error bars. In addition, we confirm that the inter-element interaction in compounds decreases with temperature.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thermodynamics of Liquid Uranium from Atomistic and Ab Initio Modeling

We present thermodynamic properties for liquid uranium obtained from classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and the first-principles theory. The coexisting phases method incorporated within MD modeling defines the melting temperature of uranium in good agreement with the experiment. The calculated melting enthalpy is in agreement with the experimental range. Classical MD simulations show that ionic contribution to the total specific heat of uranium does not depend on temperature. The density of states at the Fermi level, which is a crucial parameter in the determination of the electronic contribution to the total specific heat of liquid uranium, is calculated by ab initio all electron density functional theory (DFT) formalism applied to the atomic configurations generated by classical MD. The calculated specific heat of liquid uranium is compared with the previously calculated specific heat of solid γ-uranium at high temperatures. The liquid uranium cannot be supercooled below T sc ≈ 800 K or approximately about 645 K below the calculated melting point, although, the self-diffusion coefficient approaches zero at T D ≈ 700 K. Uranium metal can be supercooled about 1.5 times more than it can be overheated. The features of the temperature hysteresis are discussed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of an interatomic potential for the Ta–Li system

A new interatomic potential for the Ta–Li system is introduced to facilitate the study of phase stability, mechanical properties and non-equilibrium dynamics after Li implantation in Ta. Here, this potential is based on a generalization of the embedded atom method (GEAM) and includes contributions from embedding energy, explicit two- and three-body interactions, and nonlocal many-body interaction terms. The parameters of the potential are optimized using energies and atomic forces for a wide range of configurations obtained from ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The potential is rigorously validated across a range of physical properties, including elastic constants, equations of state, phonon dispersion curves, point defect properties, and melting temperatures for different compositions. Although our potential is trained on a small dataset, its accuracy is comparable to that of available machine learning potentials for Li and Ta. Our simulations show that at temperatures below 500 K, Li atoms in Ta–Li alloys form clusters separated by Ta-rich domains, and we find no evidence of ordered phase formation. For Li concentrations below a few percent, Li atoms preferentially segregate to surfaces and grain boundaries. However, in alloys containing more than ~10% Li, the accumulation of Li in symmetric-tilt grain boundaries can lead to one of the following effects: formation of amorphous-like regions, changes in grain boundary structural units, or lateral movement of the grain boundary.

GEAM potential↗
DOE OSTI2021

Non-catalytic gas phase NO oxidation in the presence of decane

In this study, experiments without a catalyst revealed that NO was oxidized in a diesel exhaust gas phase mixture due to the presence of n -C 10 H 22 (decane). This reaction was observed to occur following the low temperature oxidation catalyst test protocol (LTC-D) defined by U.S. DRIVE. The purpose of LTC-D conditions is to simulate an aftertreatment diesel combustion gas mixture in order to test candidate catalyst materials. 100% NO conversion was observed, without a catalyst, after beginning to react at 330 °C accompanied by consumption of decane. After experiments that isolated hydrocarbons, ethylene was also observed to facilitate NO oxidation to a lesser degree (>470 °C). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were conducted to investigate thermodynamically-possible initiating elementary steps during n -C 10 H 22 consumption and NO oxidation. Two feasible intermediate radicals to oxidize NO to NO 2 are ·C 10 H 21 O 2 and ·HO

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Unraveling the Mechanism of Interfacial Charge Transfer and Photoresponsivity of WS 2 Quantum Dots/MoS 2 (0D–2D) Heterostructure-Based Transistors

To assess the efficacy of a mixed-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure in modulating the optoelectronic responses of nanodevices, the charge transport properties of the transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD)-based heterostructure comprising zero-dimensional (0D) WS 2 quantum dots (QDs) and two-dimensional (2D) MoS 2 flakes are critically analyzed. Herein, a facile strategy was materialized in developing an atomically thin phototransistor assembled from mechanically exfoliated MoS 2 and WS 2 QDs synthesized using a one-pot hydrothermal route. The amalgamated photodetectors exhibited a high responsivity of ∼8000 A/W at an incident power of 0.05 nW of white light, surpassing that of the pristine MoS 2 devices. Furthermore, the detectivity of pristine MoS 2 , which was on the order of 10 10 , increased to 10 12 Jones for the WS 2 QDs/MoS 2 heterostructure photodetector, outperforming other WS 2 -based materials. The quasiparticle band gap and density of states (DOS) are further analyzed to elucidate the photophysics of the WS 2 QD/MoS 2 hybrid assembly. The difference in the work function between MoS 2 and WS 2 QDs gives rise to an electric field across the 0D–2D interface, facilitating effective charge separation and migration and contributing to the enhancement of photoresponsivity. The analysis of optical responses using density functional theory (DFT) revealed stronger absorption and less reflection over a broader spectrum of wavelengths for the heterostructure compared to the pristine materials. The estimated optical conductivity aligns well with the experimentally predicted maximum photoresponsivity under visible light, which is attributed to the high absorbance of 2D MoS 2 . In conclusion, combining diverse spectroscopic and imaging techniques with quantum simulation provides insights that clarify the pertinence of 0D–2D TMDs in designing phototransistors.

WS2 QDs/MoS2 heterostructure↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Mechanism-Based Reaction–Diffusion Model for Accelerated Discovery of Thermoset Resins Frontally Polymerized by Olefin Metathesis

Frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP) involves a self-perpetuating exothermic reaction, which enables the rapid and energy-efficient manufacturing of thermoset polymers and composites. Current state-of-the-art reaction–diffusion FROMP models rely on a phenomenological description of the olefin metathesis kinetics, limiting their ability to model the governing thermo-chemical FROMP processes. Furthermore, the existing models are unable to predict the variations in FROMP kinetics with changes in the resin composition and as a result are of limited utility toward accelerated discovery of new resin formulations. In this work, we formulate a chemically meaningful model grounded in the established mechanism of ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Our study aims to validate the hypothesis that the ROMP mechanism, applicable to monomer-initiator solutions below 100 °C, remains valid under the nonideal conditions encountered in FROMP, including ambient to >200 °C temperatures, sharp temperature gradients, and neat monomer environments. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that our mechanism-based model accurately predicts the FROMP behavior across various resin compositions, including polymerization front velocities and thermal characteristics (e.g., T max ). Additionally, we introduce a semi-inverse workflow that predicts FROMP behavior from a single experimental data point. Notably, the physiochemical parameters utilized in our model can be obtained through DFT calculations and minimal experiments, highlighting the model’s potential for rapid screening of new FROMP chemistries in pursuit of thermoset polymers with superior thermo-chemo-mechanical properties.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Feasibility of a Novel Density Functional Method Outside the Kohn-Sham Framework for Modeling Global Potential Energy Surfaces of Molecular Chemical Reactions (Final Technical Report)

The project aimed towards the construction of computational methods capable of modeling the global potential energy surface (PES) of small molecules, molecular ions, and radicals — including the parts of the PES which correspond to chemical reactions, and the reaction paths connecting reactants, intermediates, and reaction products. This goal may seem humble at first glance, but for chemical systems with more than about six atoms in total, at the time the project was proposed, there were no established theoretical methods capable of simulating such systems reliably, not even for small molecules in the gas phase which are electronically benign. This restriction severely hampers our ability to model and control chemical processes under harsh conditions. With the goal of constructing a method capable of modeling such chemical systems, we proposed to pursue a novel approach towards a Multi-Configuration (MC) DFT outside the traditional frameworks of Kohn-Sham theory and other methods of coupling wave function theory with DFT. Rather than being a complete active space (CAS) method, the proposed DOCI-DFT would employ a special restricted form of the active space wave function, called Doubly-Occupied CI (DOCI)—this wave function form is sufficient to describe not only heterolytic, but also homolytic bond dissociation processes at the zeroth order (i.e., as active space wave function). There are no other standard mean field methods which can do so. In the original proposal, we also outlined strong formal and practical arguments speaking for this method. The project proposal was accepted by the Department of Energy and provided two years of seed funding for one graduate student, as well as two years of two weeks PI summer-salary for the PI. However, ultimately the project could not be effectively pursued due to severe interferences outside the context scientific problems and was cancelled. Apart from two weeks of PI salary (and associated fringe & overhead costs issues by the performing institution), no costs were charged against the award, with the entire rest of funding returned to the Department of Energy. This report reiterates the primary background information regarding the project, its original goals, and outlines the preliminary work performed during the two weeks of DOE funding charged.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗