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We use theoretical X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) to investigate the electronic structure of the active sites during 2-propanol oxidation to acetone on the Co3O4 (001) surface in humid conditions. In the gas phase, the O K-edge spectra of 2-propanol and acetone as well that of 2-propoxide considered as reaction intermediate, present no pre-edge peaks. Upon 2-propanol adsorption at the Co site of Co3O4 (001) surface, the O K-edge spectrum presents a distinct peak preceded by a bumb in the pre-edge region, both due to dipole transitions from O 1s to 2p states hybridized with Co 3d empty states. The formation of 2- propoxide leads to two distinct pre-edge peaks due to the increase of 3d empty states. A further increment of these pre-edge peaks is observed when acetone is formed and is rather ascribed to the new contributions of carbon 2p empty states in the transitions occurring in the pre-edge region. The changes observed in the pre-edge peak along the oxidation were correlated to the electronic configuration and hybridization of the cobalt atom directly bonded to alcohol. The variation of electron densities was also monitored for all surface cobalt atoms including the ones on which molecular and dissociated water are adsorbed. The PDOS analysis and crystal field theory showed that adsorption of 2-propanol and molecular water on the surface does not change the oxidation state of +3, while surface cobalt atoms bonded to OH groups have an oxi- dation state of +4. The 3d Loewdin charges analysis shows pronounced cooperative effects between both Co sites during the last oxidation step which corresponds to the decomposition of 2-propoxide to acetone.

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Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of a single hydrated 2-propanol molecule were performed to study the role of temperature, surface structure and electrochemical environment for the oxidation of 2-propanol to acetone at the Co3 O4 (001)/H2 O interface. On the A-terminated and B-terminated surfaces, which differ in the relative number of Co2+ and Co3+ ions at the surface, 2-propanol adsorbs molecularly on the Co2+ and Co3+ sites, respectively. In both cases, no C-H bond cleavage is observed at room temperature. However, under oxidative conditions, which are modeled here by partial dehydrogenation of the mixed hydroxyl/water adsorbate layer, dehydrogenation of the alcoholic OH group is observed on both surface terminations. As a result, adsorbed 2-propanolate is formed. The reaction on the less hydroxylated B- terminated surface further proceeds with C-H bond cleavage at the 2-carbon atom. The oxidation product acetone remains adsorbed on the Co3+ site during the simulation period of approximately 20 ps. Both deprotonation steps are aided by the presence of the adsorbed hydroxyl groups in the vicinity of the adsorbed alcohol molecule, because both hydrogen atoms from the reac- tand molecule are transferred as protons to form adsorbed water molecules. Different from the case of the partially dehydrogenated environment, raising the system temperature from 300 to 450 K, which can be considered a simple model for high temperature thermal catalysis, does not lead to oxidation via C-H dehydrogenation of the 2-propanol molecule.

One-dimensional nanostructures such as nanorods and nanotubes (NTs) are regarded as promising materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting. Modeling the electronic properties of oxidic NTs with diameters in the range of 3–30 nm in contact with liquid water is challenging owing to the fact that the systems are too large for direct ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Here we summarize recent efforts to develop strained two-dimensional model systems for pristine and doped titania NTs. We have studied their structural, optical and photoelectrochemical properties by a number of different techniques attributable to quantum mechanical density functional theory.

The CoYSb (Y = Cr, Mo and W) compounds which are XYZ type half-Heusler alloys and also exist in the face centred cubic MgAgAs-type struc-ture conform to F ̄43m space group. In the present work, these compoundsare investigated in different atomic arrangements called, Type-I, Type-II andType-III phases, using Generalized Gradient Approximation (GGA) in the Density Functional Theory (DFT) implemented in QE (Quantum EspressoAb-Initio Simulation Package). The ferromagnetic state of these alloys is studied after investigating their stable structural phase. The calculated electronic band structure and the total electronic density of states indicated nearly half-metallic behaviour in CoMoSb with a possibility of being used in spintronic application, metallic in CoWSb and half-metallic in CoCrSb, with the minority spin band gap of 0.81 eV. Furthermore, the calculated mechanical properties predicted an anisotropic behaviour of these alloys in the stable phase. Finally, due to its high Debye temperature value, CoCrSb possesses a stronger covalent bond than CoMoSb and CoWSb, respectively.

ACS applied materials & interfaces 13(44), 51962 - 51973 (2021). doi:10.1021/acsami.1c08034, Herein, we report nanosecond, single-pulse laser post-processing (PLPP) in a liquid flat jet with precise control of the applied laser intensity to tune structure, defect sites, and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity of mesostructured Co$_3$O$_4$. High-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are consistent with the formation of cobalt vacancies at tetrahedral sites and an increase in the lattice parameter of Co$_3$O$_4$ after the laser treatment. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) further reveal increased disorder in the structure and a slight decrease in the average oxidation state of the cobalt oxide. Molecular dynamics simulation confirms the surface restructuring upon laser post-treatment on Co$_3$O$_4$. Importantly, the defect-induced PLPP was shown to lower the charge transfer resistance and boost the oxygen evolution activity of Co$_3$O$_4$. For the optimized sample, a 2-fold increment of current density at 1.7 V vs RHE is obtained and the overpotential at 10 mA/cm$^2$ decreases remarkably from 405 to 357 mV compared to pristine Co$_3$O$_4$. Post-mortem characterization reveals that the material retains its activity, morphology, and phase structure after a prolonged stability test., Published by Soc., Washington, DC

Defect-induced magnetism in two-dimensional materials continues to attract attention due to potential applications in spintronics. Using density-functional theory (DFT) approach, we report on the magnetization in graphene containing carbon vacancy defects, i.e., nanoporous graphene. We consider single nanopores consisting of up to ten vacancies and interacting nanopores consisting in vacancy pairs, divacancy pairs and vacancy-divacancy pairs, separated at varying distances. We found that the interactions between the nanopores weaken as their separation increases such that the formation energy tends to the value for the single nanopore while the magnetic moment tends to the sum of individual magnetic moments. Introducing additional nanopore to a pre-existing nanopore may enhance graphene's magnetic moment, however, the nanopores may also interact to induce zero magnetization. The enhancement, reduction or total annihilation of the magnetic moments may be adduced to interactions between the individual nanopores resulting in the saturation of the dangling bonds and/or the realignment of the electrons responsible for the magnetization. Also, our calculated values of induced magnetic moment of different single nanopores enable us to determine an empirical model for predicting the total magnetic moment as a function of nanopore size. The model is able to produce the magnetic moment of small and large nanopore sizes which are in excellent agreement with the DFT calculated values. Finally, we found our results to be consistent with recent experimental studies on magnetic response of graphene containing vacancies introduced via a synthesis process or ion irradiation, respectively.

Solar light driven hydrogen evolution is one focus of modern materials research. Among the different emerging technologies, particular interest is devoted towards metal oxide photocatalysts in the form of various 1D nanostructures. Presently, the mismatch between regular structures that can be synthesized and the largest structures that are feasible for computer simulation is still very large. For example, an in-depth study of water adsorption on nanotube (NT) surfaces requires, in addition to DFT calculations, molecular dynamics simulations to take into account the disordered nature of the aqueous phase. To completely immerse even a very thin nanotube into an aqueous system requires very large system sizes, the modeling of which is computationally extremely expensive. On the other hand, the typical surface science approach when modeling planar interfaces is computationally much less demanding, but can be adequate only for NTs of very large diameters possessing low strain energies. Here, we present three simplified slab models derived from local NT geometries as approximations for inner and outer interfaces of thin TiO2 NTs. In order to describe the role of NT strain on the electronic structure of the water/NT interface, these models contain additional constraints on some of the atoms to alleviate some of the shortcomings of the slab approach. We use the energy of water adsorption, equilibrium interatomic distances, calculated densities of states (DOS) and Mulliken charge distribution as criteria for estimating the model quality. Specifically we analyze the suitability of this approach for the very thin TiO2 (001) slab and the thicker TiO2 (001) NT.

We use ab initio molecular dynamics simulations to study the adsorption of thin water films with 1 and 2 ML coverage on anatase TiO2 (001) nanotubes. The nanotubes are modeled as 2D slabs, which consist of partially constrained and partially relaxed structural motifs from nanotubes. The effect of anion doping on the adsorption is investigated by substituting O atoms with N and S impurities on the nanotube slab surface. Due to strain-induced curvature effects, water adsorbs molecularly on defect-free surfaces via weak bonds on Ti sites and H bonds to surface oxygens. While the introduction of an S atom weakens the interaction of the surface with water, which adsorbs molecularly, the presence of an N impurity renders the surface more reactive to water, with a proton transfer from the water film and the formation of an NH group at the N site. At 2 ML coverage, a further surface-assisted proton transfer takes place in the water film, resulting in the formation of an OH– group and an NH2+ cationic site on the ...

Modeling Perovskite materials and tuning their properties by monovalent or divalent cations substitution produce several choice Perovskite compounds, studied extensively to improve the power conversion efficiency, reduce toxicity, and enhance stability. We modeled NH4PbI3 and NH4MgI3 from the parent compound CH3NH3PbI3, by replacing the monovalent CH3 NH 3 + with NH 4 + and the divalent Pb atom with Mg. In this study, the electronic band structure, as well as the electronic bandgaps, were calculated using the Perdew-Burke-Enzenhoff (PBE) and Perdew-Burke-Enzenhoff for solid (PBEsol) exchange-correlation functionals of the Density-functional Theory (DFT) and GW quasiparticle method of the Many-Body Perturbation Theory (MBPT). Similarly, we used Time-Dependent Density Functional Perturbation Theory (TDDFPT) and the solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) of the Many-Body Perturbation Theory to determine the real and imaginary dielectric tensors with and without spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Direct bandgaps at R high symmetry point were reported for NH4PbI3, while NH4MgI3 showed indirect bandgaps at Γ → R high symmetry points with lower bandgaps compared to NH4PbI3. The projected density of state around the Fermi level reveals that the iodine (I) p orbital is most responsible for the valence band in both NH4PbI3 and NH4MgI3, while the Lead (Pb) p orbital and the Magnesium (Mg) s orbitals, show the most prominent contribution to the Conduction bands. Similar Optical spectra were achieved with BSE-SOC, TDDFPT, and TDDFPT-SOC for NH4PbI3 without the absorption onsets, while NH4PbI3 predicts higher values of absorbance and absorption coefficient compared to NH4MgI3 which predict lower reflectivity and higher transmittance. Both compounds show maximum absorption coefficient in the order of 105 in the ultraviolet region like CH3NH3PbI3 and silicon. Therefore, we suggest that NH4PbI3 will be useful as solar cell absorber and UV ray protector, while NH4MgI3 would have more applications in the production of electrochromic materials.

A comprehensive search for stable structures in the low coverage regime (0–1 ML) and at 2 ML and 3 ML using DFT revealed several new aggregation states of water on the non-polar ZnO(100) surface. Ladder-like structures consisting of half-dissociated dimers, arranged side-by-side along the polar axis, constitute the most stable aggregate at low coverages (≤1 ML) with a binding energy exceeding that of the monolayer. At coverages beyond the monolayer – a regime that has hardly been studied previously – a novel type of structure with a continuous honeycomb-like 2D network of hydrogen bonds was discovered, where each surface oxygen atom is coordinated by additional H-bonding water molecules. This flat double-monolayer has a relatively high adsorption energy, every zinc and oxygen atom is 4-fold coordinated and every hydrogen atom is engaged in a hydrogen bond. Hence this honeycomb double monolayer offers no H-bond donor or acceptor sites for further growth of the water film. At 3 ML coverage, the interface restructures forming a contact layer of half-dissociated water dimers and a liquid-like overlayer of water attached by hydrogen bonds. The structures and their adsorption energies are analysed to understand the driving forces for aggregation and dissociation of water on the surface. We apply a decomposition scheme based on a Born–Haber cycle, discussing difficulties that may occur in applying such an analysis to the adsorption of dissociated molecules and point out alternatives to circumvent the bias against severely stretched bonds. Water aggregation on the ZnO surface is favoured by direct water–water interactions including H-bonds and dipole–dipole interactions and surface- or adsorption-mediated interactions including enhanced water–surface interactions and reduced relaxations of the water molecules and surface. While dissociation of isolated adsorbed molecules is unfavourable, partial or even full dissociation is preferred for aggregates. Nevertheless, direct water–water interactions change very little in the dissociation reaction. Dissociation is governed by a subtle balance between strongly enhanced water–surface interactions and the large energies required for the geometric changes of the water molecule(s) and the surface. Our conclusions are discussed on the background of the current knowledge on water adsorption at metals and non-metallic surfaces.

This study was supported by the EC ERA.Net RUS Plus project No. 237 WATERSPLIT as well as Russian Basic Research Foundation No. 16-53-76019. S.K. and E.S. furthermore gratefully acknowledge computing time granted by the Center for Computational Sciences and Simulation (CCSS) of the Universitaẗ Duisburg-Essen and the supercomputer magnitUDE (DFG grants INST 20876/209-1 FUGG, INST 20876/243-1 FUGG) provided by the Zentrum für Informations-und Mediendienste (ZIM). E.S. is also grateful for support by the Cluster of Excellence RESOLV (EXC1069) funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft., One-dimensional tungsten disulfide (WS2) single-walled nanotubes (NTs) with either achiral, i.e., armchair (n, n) and zigzag-type (n, 0), or chiral (2n, n) configuration with diameters dNT > 1.9 nm have been found to be suitable for photocatalytic applications, since their band gaps correspond to the frequency range of visible light between red and violet (1.5 eV < Δϵgap < 2.6 eV). We have simulated the electronic structure of nanotubes with diameters up to 12.0 nm. The calculated top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band (ϵVB and ϵCB, respectively) have been properly aligned relatively to the oxidation (ϵO2/H2O) and reduction (ϵH2/H2O) potentials of water. Very narrow nanotubes (0.5 < dNT < 1.9 nm) are unsuitable for water splitting because the condition ϵVB < ϵO2/H2O < ϵH2/H2O < ϵCB does not hold. For nanotubes with dNT > 1.9 nm, the condition ϵVB < ϵO2/H2O < ϵH2/H2O < ϵCB is fulfilled. The values of ϵVB and ϵCB have been found to depend only on the diameter and not on the chirality index of the nanotube. The reported structural and electronic properties have been obtained from either hybrid density functional theory and Hartree-Fock linear combination of atomic orbitals calculations (using the HSE06 functional) or the linear augmented cylindrical waves density functional theory method. In addition to single-walled NTs, we have investigated a number of achiral double-walled (m, m)at(n, n) and (m, 0)at(n, 0) as well as triple-walled (l, l)at(m, m)at(n, n) and (l, 0)at(m, 0)at(n, 0) nanotubes. All multiwalled nanotubes show a common dependence of their band gap on the diameter of the inner nanotube, independent of chirality index and number of walls. This behavior of WS2 NTs allows the exploitation of the entire range of the visible spectrum by suitably tuning the band gap., Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft INST 20876/243-1 FUGG,INST 20876/209-1 FUGG,EXC1069; Russian Foundation for Basic Research 16-53-76019; EC ERA.Net RUS Plus project No. 237 WATERSPLIT; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART²

We use ab initio molecular dynamics simulations to study the adsorption of thin water films with 1 and 2 ML coverage on anatase TiO

ZnO nanoparticles are used as catalysts and have potential applications in gas-sensing and solar energy conversion. A fundamental understanding of the exposed crystal facets, their surface chemistry, and stability as a function of environmental conditions is essential for rational design and improvement of synthesis and properties. We study the stability of water adsorbate phases on the non-polar low-index (101¯0) and (112¯0) surfaces from low coverage to multilayers using ab initio thermodynamics. We show that phonon contributions and the entropies due to a 2D lattice gas at low coverage and multiple adsorbate configurations at higher coverage have an important impact on the stability range of water adsorbate phases in the (T,p) phase diagram. Based on this insight, we compute and analyze the possible growth mode of water films for pressures ranging from UHV via ambient conditions to high pressures and the impact of water adsorption on the equilibrium shape of nanoparticles in a humid environment. A 2D variant of the Wulff construction shows that the (101¯0) and (112¯0) surfaces coexist on 12-faceted prismatic ZnO nanoparticles in dry conditions, while in humid environment, the (101¯0) surface is selectively stabilized by water adsorption resulting in hexagonal prisms.

A comprehensive search for stable structures in the low coverage regime (0-1 ML) and at 2 ML and 3 ML using DFT revealed several new aggregation states of water on the non-polar ZnO(101[combining macron]0) surface. Ladder-like structures consisting of half-dissociated dimers, arranged side-by-side along the polar axis, constitute the most stable aggregate at low coverages (≤1 ML) with a binding energy exceeding that of the monolayer. At coverages beyond the monolayer - a regime that has hardly been studied previously - a novel type of structure with a continuous honeycomb-like 2D network of hydrogen bonds was discovered, where each surface oxygen atom is coordinated by additional H-bonding water molecules. This flat double-monolayer has a relatively high adsorption energy, every zinc and oxygen atom is 4-fold coordinated and every hydrogen atom is engaged in a hydrogen bond. Hence this honeycomb double monolayer offers no H-bond donor or acceptor sites for further growth of the water film. At 3 ML coverage, the interface restructures forming a contact layer of half-dissociated water dimers and a liquid-like overlayer of water attached by hydrogen bonds. The structures and their adsorption energies are analysed to understand the driving forces for aggregation and dissociation of water on the surface. We apply a decomposition scheme based on a Born-Haber cycle, discussing difficulties that may occur in applying such an analysis to the adsorption of dissociated molecules and point out alternatives to circumvent the bias against severely stretched bonds. Water aggregation on the ZnO surface is favoured by direct water-water interactions including H-bonds and dipole-dipole interactions and surface- or adsorption-mediated interactions including enhanced water-surface interactions and reduced relaxations of the water molecules and surface. While dissociation of isolated adsorbed molecules is unfavourable, partial or even full dissociation is preferred for aggregates. Nevertheless, direct water-water interactions change very little in the dissociation reaction. Dissociation is governed by a subtle balance between strongly enhanced water-surface interactions and the large energies required for the geometric changes of the water molecule(s) and the surface. Our conclusions are discussed on the background of the current knowledge on water adsorption at metals and non-metallic surfaces.

For rational design and improvement of electronic and optical properties of water-splitting photocatalysts, the ability to control the band edge positions relative to the water redox potentials and the photoresponse as a function of environmental conditions is essential. We combine ab initio molecular dynamics simulations with ab initio many-body theoretical calculations to predict the bandgap and band edge energies, as well as the absorption spectrum of pristine and N- and S-doped TiO2 nanotubes using the DFT+U and G0W0 approaches. Both levels of theory show similar trends, and N+S-codoping appears to be the optimal system for photocatalytic water splitting both in dry and humid conditions. However, the effect is rather moderate. Compared to DFT+U, the enhanced many-body effects in the G0W0 calculations push the absolute energies of the band edges to higher values and yield increased quasi-particle bandgaps in better agreement with experiment. In dry and humid conditions, the electronic bandgap for all systems is found to be in the range of 6.0–6.2 eV with a redshift from electronic gap to optical gap. The absorption spectra show an optical anisotropy and different absorption thresholds for different light polarizations.For rational design and improvement of electronic and optical properties of water-splitting photocatalysts, the ability to control the band edge positions relative to the water redox potentials and the photoresponse as a function of environmental conditions is essential. We combine ab initio molecular dynamics simulations with ab initio many-body theoretical calculations to predict the bandgap and band edge energies, as well as the absorption spectrum of pristine and N- and S-doped TiO2 nanotubes using the DFT+U and G0W0 approaches. Both levels of theory show similar trends, and N+S-codoping appears to be the optimal system for photocatalytic water splitting both in dry and humid conditions. However, the effect is rather moderate. Compared to DFT+U, the enhanced many-body effects in the G0W0 calculations push the absolute energies of the band edges to higher values and yield increased quasi-particle bandgaps in better agreement with experiment. In dry and humid conditions, the electronic bandgap for all s...