The understanding of the kinetic properties of hydrogen (isotopes) adatoms on graphene is important in many fields. The kinetic properties of hydrogen-isotope (H, D and T) monomers were simulated using a composite method consisting of density functional theory, density functional perturbation theory and harmonic transition state theory. The kinetic changes of the magnetic property and the aromatic $π$ bond of the hydrogenated graphene during the desorption and diffusion of the hydrogen monomer was discussed. The vibrational zero-point energy corrections in the activation energies were found to be significant, ranging from 0.072 to 0.205 eV. The results obtained from quantum-mechanically modified harmonic transition state theory were compared with the ones obtained from classical-limit harmonic transition state theory over a wide temperature range. The phonon spectra of hydrogenated graphene were used to closely explain the (reversed) isotope effects in the prefactor, activation energy and jump frequency of the hydrogen monomer. The kinetic properties of the hydrogen-isotope monomers were simulated under conditions of annealing for 10 minutes and of heating at a constant rate (1.0 K/s). The isotope effect was observed; that is, a hydrogen monomer of lower mass is desorbed and diffuses more easily (with lower activation energies). The results presented herein are very similar to other reported experimental observations. This study of the kinetic properties of the hydrogen monomer and many other involved implicit mechanisms provides a better understanding of the interaction between hydrogen and graphene.
The thermodynamic, kinetic and magnetic properties of the hydrogen monomer on doped graphene layers were studied by ab initio simulations. Electron doping was found to heighten the diffusion potential barrier, while hole doping lowers it. However, both kinds of dopings heighten the desorption potential barrier. The underlying mechanism was revealed by investigating the effect of doping on the bond strength of graphene and on the electron transfer and the coulomb interaction between the hydrogen monomer and graphene. The kinetic properties of H and D monomers on doped graphene layers during bot…
Relative to conventional wet-chemical synthesis techniques, on-surface synthesis of organic networks in ultrahigh vacuum has few control parameters. The molecular deposition rate and substrate temperature are typically the only synthesis variables to be adjusted dynamically. Here we demonstrate that reducing conditions in the vacuum environment can be created and controlled without dedicated sources -- relying only on backfilled hydrogen gas and ion gauge filaments -- and can dramatically influence the Ullmann-like on-surface reaction used for synthesizing two-dimensional covalent organic fram…
We present an attempt to build up a new two-body effective potential for hydrogen fluoride, fitted to theoretical and experimental data relevant not only to the gas and liquid phases, but also to the crystal. The model is simple enough to be used in Molecular Dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations. The potential consists of: a) an intra-molecular contribution, allowing for variations of the molecular length, plus b) an inter-molecular part, with three charged sites on each monomer and a Buckingham "exp-6" interaction between fluorines. The model is able to reproduce a significant number of obser…
A binary embedded-atom method (EAM) potential is optimized for Cu on Ag(111) by fitting to ab initio data. The fitting database consists of DFT calculations of Cu monomers and dimers on Ag(111), specifically their relative energies, adatom heights, and dimer separations. We start from the Mishin Cu-Ag EAM potential and first modify the Cu-Ag pair potential to match the FCC/HCP site energy difference then include Cu-Cu pair potential optimization for the entire database. The optimized EAM potential reproduce DFT monomer and dimer relative energies and geometries correctly. In trimer calculation…
The electronic and structural properties of (i) boron doped graphene sheets, and (ii) the chemisorption processes of hydrogen adatoms on the boron doped graphene sheets have been examined by {\it ab initio} total energy calculations.
Recent x-ray Compton scattering experiments in ice have provided useful information about the quantum nature of the interaction between H$_2$O monomers. The hydrogen bond is characterized by a certain amount of charge transfer which could be determined in a Compton experiment. We use ab-initio simulations to investigate the hydrogen bond in H$_2$O structures by calculating the Compton profile and related quantities in three different systems, namely the water dimer, a cluster containing 12 water molecules and the ice crystal. We show how to extract estimates of the charge transfer from the Com…
First-principles atomistic molecular dynamics simulation in the micro-canonical and canonical ensembles has been used to study the diffusion of interstitial hydrogen in $α$-iron. Hydrogen to Iron ratios between $θ=1/16 and 1/2 have been considered by locating interstitial hydrogen atoms at random positions in a $2 \times 2 \times 2$ supercell. We find that the average optimum absorption site and the barrier for diffusion depend on the concentration of interestitials. Iron Debye temperature decreases monotonically for increasing concentration of interstitial hydrogen, proving that iron-iron int…
The effect of hydrostatic strain and of interstitial hydrogen on the elastic properties of $α$-iron is investigated using \textit{ab initio} density-functional theory calculations. We find that the cubic elastic constants and the polycrystalline elastic moduli to a good approximation decrease linearly with increasing hydrogen concentration. This net strength reduction can be partitioned into a strengthening electronic effect which is overcome by a softening volumetric effect. The calculated hydrogen-dependent elastic constants are used to determine the polycrystalline elastic moduli and anisot…
Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations show a weak interaction between hydrogen and helium in iron, in contrast to previous reports of a strong trapping of hydrogen at helium. The strong preference of He and H to occupy regions with low electronic density (such as vacancies) explains this discrepancy, with vacancy-He and vacancy-H binding forces concealing the repulsive interaction between He and H. Furthermore, Rate Theory simulations based on our DFT-calculated V$_n$He$_m$H$_p$ cluster energetics predict, as it is observed in some experiments, that synergetic effects could be expected …
Dislocation core properties of Al with and without H impurities are studied using the Peierls-Nabarro model with parameters determined by ab initio calculations. We find that H not only facilitates dislocation emission from the crack tip but also enhances dislocation mobility dramatically, leading to macroscopically softening and thinning of the material ahead of the crack tip. We observe strong binding between H and dislocation cores, with the binding energy depending on dislocation character. This dependence can directly affect the mechanical properties of Al by inhibiting dislocation cross-…
The dissociative adsorption of hydrogen on Pd(100) has been studied by ab initio quantum dynamics and ab initio molecular dynamics calculations. Treating all hydrogen degrees of freedom as dynamical coordinates implies a high dimensionality and requires statistical averages over thousands of trajectories. An efficient and accurate treatment of such extensive statistics is achieved in two steps: In a first step we evaluate the ab initio potential energy surface (PES) and determine an analytical representation. Then, in an independent second step dynamical calculations are performed on the analy…
We have found that a beryllium (Be) atom on nanostructured materials with H2 molecules generates a Kubas-like dihydrogen complex [H. Lee et al. arXiv:1002.2247v1 (2010)]. Here, we investigate the feasibility of Be-decorated fullerenes for hydrogen storage using ab initio calculations. We find that the aggregation of Be atoms on pristine fullerenes is energetically preferred, resulting in the dissociation of the dihydrogen. In contrast, for boron (B)-doped fullerenes, Be atoms prefer to be individually attached to B sites of the fullerenes, and a maximum of one H2 molecule binds to each Be atom…
In this paper we present kinetic properties such as migration and decomposition barriers of hydrogen defects in silicon calculated by Density Functional Theory (DFT) based methods. We study the following defects: H atoms (H) and ions (H+, H-), hydrogen molecules (H2) and hydrogen complexes (H2*). Our results show that the dominating migration species are H ions, their charge-independent migration barrier being 0.46 eV in excellent agreement with experimental value [1]. At higher temperatures H2 and H2* decompose with barriers of 1.2 and 1.5 eV respectively, while the migration barrier of H2 is…
Because of their unique structure, it has been proposed that carbon nanotube ropes may well provide an ideal container for the storage of molecular hydrogen. Indeed, there has been some experimental evidence of enhanced hydrogen uptake in doped Li and other alkali metal systems [Chen et al, Science 285, 91 (1999)]. We have therefore addressed this issue of hydrogen storage in Li-doped graphite and carbon nanotube systems theoretically with ab initio simulations. Our results find no evidence for such enhanced storage, based on the induced structural changes. In addition, we have also investigat…
Ab initio simulations that account for nuclear quantum effects have been used to examine the order-disorder transition in squaric acid, a prototypical H-bonded antiferroelectric crystal. Our simulations reproduce the >100 K difference in transition temperature observed upon deuteration as well as the strong geometrical isotope effect observed on intermolecular separations within the crystal. We find that collective transfer of protons along the H-bonding chains - facilitated by quantum mechanical tunneling - is critical to the order-disorder transition and the geometrical isotope effect. This …
The optical spectra of hydrogen at $\sim$500 GPa were studied theoretically using a combination of \emph{ab initio} methods. Among the four most competitive structures, i.e. C2/c-24, Cmca-12, Cmca-4, and I41/amd, only the atomic phase I41/amd can provide satisfactory interpretations of the recent experimental observation, and the electron-phonon interactions (EPIs) play a crucial role. Anharmonic effects (AHEs) due to lattice vibration are non-negligible but not sufficient to account for the experimentally observed temperature dependence of the reflectance. The drop of the reflectance at 2 eV …
Efficiency of ZnO doping with Ag and N shallow acceptors, which substitute respectively cations and anions, was investigated. First principles calculations indicate a strong tendency towards formation of nearest neighbor Ag-N pairs and N-Ag-N triangles. Binding of acceptors stems from the formation of quasi-molecular bonds between dopants, and has a universal character in semiconductors. The pairing increases energy levels of impurities, and thus lowers doping efficiency. In the presence of donors, pairing is weaker or even forbidden. However, hydrogen has a tendency to form clusters with Ag a…
We report a detailed ab initio investigation on hydrogen bonding, geometry, electronic structure, and lattice dynamics of ice under a large high pressure range, including the ice X phase (55-380GPa), the previous theoretically proposed higher-pressure phase ice XIIIM (Refs. 1-2) (380GPa), ice XV (a new structure we derived from ice XIIIM) (300-380GPa), as well as the ambient pressure low-temperature phase ice XI. Different from many other materials, the band gap of ice X is found to be increasing linearly with pressure from 55GPa up to 290GPa, the electronic density of states (DOS) shows that …
A reliable description of surfaces structures in a reactive environment is crucial to understand materials functions. We present a first-principles theory of replica-exchange grand-canonical-ensemble molecular dynamics (REGC-MD) and apply it to evaluate phase equilibria of surfaces in reactive gas-phase environment. We identify the different surface phases and locate phase boundaries including triple and critical points. The approach is demonstrated by addressing open questions for the Si(100) surface in contact with a hydrogen atmosphere. In the range from 300 to 1 000 K, we find 25 distinct …
Hydrogen bonding in infinite HF and HCl bent (zigzag) chains is studied using the ab initio coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) correlation method. The correlation contribution to the binding energy is decomposed in terms of nonadditive many-body interactions between the monomers in the chains, the so-called energy increments. Van der Waals constants for the two-body dispersion interaction between distant monomers in the infinite chains are extracted from this decomposition. They allow a partitioning of the correlation contribution to the binding energy into short- and long-range terms.…
The adsorption properties of isolated H$_{2}$O molecule on stoichiometric and reduced (with on-surface oxygen vacancy) ceria(1111) surfaces at low coverage are theoretically investigated by using density-functional-theory+\emph{U} calculations and \textit{ab initio} molecular dynamics simulations. We identify the most stable adsorption configurations on these two kinds of surfaces, which form two hydrogen bonds between the water molecule and the oxide surface. The electronic structures indicate that the hybridization of the molecular orbitals of water and surface-layer O-2\emph{p} states domin…
FeTi-based hydrides have recently re-attracted attention as stationary hydrogen storage materials due to favorable reversibility, good sorption kinetics and relatively low costs compared to alternative intermetallic hydrides. Employing the OpenCalphad software, the thermodynamics of the (FeTi)$_{1-x}$H$_{x}$ (0 $\leq x \leq$ 1) system were assessed as a key basis for modeling hydrogenation of FeTi-based alloys. New thermodynamic data were acquired from our experimental pressure-composition-isotherm (PCI) curves, as well as first-principles calculations utilizing density functional theory (DFT)…
We propose a new statistical physics model to study equilibrium solute segregation at grain boundaries and the resulting embrittlement effect. This low-temperature expansion model is general and efficient, and its parameters can be obtained from atomistic calculations. It is possible to take into account multiple species, multiple segregation sites with different segregation free energies, account for configurational entropy, grain radius and site competition between solutes. As an example, the model is then applied to the study of phosphorus and hydrogen co-segregation at $\Sigma3$ $109.5°[0\…
Mg2NiH4 is a promising hydrogen storage material with fast (de)hydrogenation kinetics. Its hydrogen desorption enthalpy, however, is too large for practical applications. In this paper we study the effects of transition metal doping by first-principles density functional theory calculations. We show that the hydrogen desorption enthalpy can be reduced by ~0.1 eV/H2 if one in eight Ni atoms is replaced by Cu or Fe. Replacing Ni by Co atoms, however, increases the hydrogen desorption enthalpy. We study the thermodynamic stability of the dopants in the hydrogenated and dehydrogenated phases. Dopi…
In order to identify potential hydrogen storage materials, worldwide attention has been focused on hydrides with high gravimetric and volumetric capacity. Hydrogen is a unique element that possess positive, negative or neutral oxidation state in solids depending upon the chemical environment. If one can find hydrogen storage materials where hydrogen is present in both negative and positive oxidation state within the same structural framework then one can accommodate hydrogen with high volume density. So, it is fundamentally as well as technologically important to identify compounds in which hy…
We propose a method to simulate a-Si and a-Si:H using an ab initio approach based on the Harris functional and thermally amorphisized periodically continued cells with at least 64 atoms, and calculate their radial distribution functions. Hydrogen incorporation was achieved via diffusive random addition. The electronic density of states (DOS) is obtained using density functional theory with the aid of both the Harris-functional and Kohn-Sham-LDA approaches. Two time steps are used, 2.44 and 10 fs for the pure, and 0.46 and 2 fs for the hydrogenated, to see their effect on the topological and DO…
Magnesium alanate Mg(AlH4)2 has recently raised interest as a potential material for hydrogen storage. We apply ab initio calculations to characterize structural, electronic and energetic properties of Mg(AlH4)2. Density functional theory calculations within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) are used to optimize the geometry and obtain the electronic structure. The latter is also studied by quasi-particle calculations at the GW level. Mg(AlH4)2 is a large band gap insulator with a fundamental band gap of 6.5 eV. The hydrogen atoms are bonded in AlH4 complexes, whose states dominate …
Expanding pollution and rapid consumption of natural reservoirs (gas, oil, and coal) led humankind to explore alternative energy fuels like hydrogen fuel. Solid-state hydrogen storage is most desirable because of its usefulness in the onboard vehicle. In this work, we explored the yttrium decorated ultra porous, two-dimensional holey-graphyne for hydrogen storage. Using the first principles DFT simulations, we predict that yttrium doped holey graphyne can adsorb up to seven hydrogen molecules per yttrium atom resulting in a gravimetric hydrogen weight percentage of 9.34, higher than the target…
Hydrogen diffusion in TiCr$_2$H$_x$ Laves phases: A combined ab initio and machine-learning-potential study
University of Stuttgart(斯图加特大学);Ruhr-Universität Bochum(波鸿鲁尔大学);Max-Planck-Institut for Sustainable Materials(马克斯·普朗克可持续材料研究所);Kyushu University(九州大学);Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.(三井化学株式会社)
Using ab initio thermodynamics, the stability of a wide range of hydrocarbon adsorbates under various chemical vapor deposition (CVD) conditions (temperature, methane and hydrogen pressures) used in experimental graphene growth protocols at solid and liquid Cu surfaces has been explored. At the employed high growth temperatures around the melting point of Cu, we find that commonly used thermodynamic models such as the harmonic oscillator model may no longer be accurate. Instead, we account for the translational and rotational mobility of adsorbates using a recently developed hindered translato…
The hydrogen-bond network of water is characterized by the presence of coordination defects relative to the ideal tetrahedral network of ice, whose fluctuations determine the static and time-dependent properties of the liquid. Because of topological constraints, such defects do not come alone, but are highly correlated coming in a plethora of different pairs. Here we discuss in detail such correlations in the case of ab initio water models and show that they have interesting similarities to regular and defective solid phases of water. Although defect correlations involve deviations from ideali…
The extent of hydrogen coverage of the Si(001)c(4x2) surface in the presence of hydrogen gas has been studied with dispersion corrected density functional theory. Electronic energy contributions are well described using a hybrid functional. The temperature dependence of the coverage in thermodynamic equilibrium was studied computing the phonon spectrum in a supercell approach. As an approximation to these demanding computations, an interpolated phonon approach was found to give comparable accuracy. The simpler ab initio thermodynamic approach is not accurate enough for the system studied, even…
We present an ab-initio study of electron mobility and electron-phonon coupling in chemically modified graphene, considering fluorinated and hydrogenated graphene at different percentage coverage. Hexagonal Boron Carbon Nitrogen (h-BCN) is also investigated due the increased interest shown by the research community towards this material. In particular, the Deformation Potentials are computed by means of Density Functional Theory (DFT), while the carrier mobility is obtained according to the Takagi model (S. Takagi, A. Toriumi, and H. Tango, IEEE Trans. Electr. Dev. 41, 2363 (1994)). We will sh…
Based on the van der Waals density functional theory (vdW-DFT)+U scheme, we carry out the ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) study of the interaction dynamics for H$_{2}$ impingement against the stoichiometric PuO$_{2}$(111), the reduced PuO$_{2}$(111), and the stoichiometric $α$-Pu$_{2}$O$_{3}$(111) surfaces. The hydrogen molecular physisorption states, which can not be captured by pure DFT+\textit{U} method, are obtained by employing the vdW-DFT+\textit{U} scheme. We show that except for the weak physisorption, PuO$_{2}$(111) surfaces are so difficult of access that almost all of the H$_{2}…
The metallic regime of the hydrogen plasma is studied by ab initio Molecular Dynamics simulations, for classical protons and fully degenerate electrons, in the strong coupling regime of the protons. The breakdown of linear screening observed for decreasing density gives rise to a surprisingly rich low-temperature phase diagram, showing in particular a dramatic drop of the melting temperature of the proton crystal. Extensive dynamical simulations reveal the remarkable persistence of a weakly damped high-frequency ion acoustic mode (plasmon-like), even under conditions of strong electron screeni…
This paper presents an $ab$ $initio$ study of hydrogen dynamics inside nanometer-size voids in $a$-Si within the framework of the density-functional theory for a varying hydrogen load of 10 to 30 H atoms/void at the low and high temperature of 400 K and 700 K, respectively. Using the local density approximation and its generalized-gradient counterpart, the dynamics of hydrogen atoms inside the voids are examined with an emphasis on the diffusion of H atoms/molecules, and the resulting nanostructural changes of the void surfaces. The results from simulations suggest that the microstructure of t…
The effect of solute hydrogen on the stability of vacancy clusters in hexagonal closed packed zirconium is investigated with an ab initio approach, including contributions of H vibrations. Atomistic simulations within the density functional theory evidence a strong binding of H to small vacancy clusters. The hydrogen effect on large vacancy loops is modeled through its interaction with the stacking faults. A thermodynamic modeling of H segregation on the various faults, relying on ab initio binding energies, shows that these faults are enriched in H, leading to a decrease of the stacking fault…
The hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) play an important role in hydrogen based energy conversion. Recently, the frustrating performance in alkaline media raised debates on the relevant mechanism, especially on the role of surface hydroxyl (OH*). We present a full pH range electrode/electrolyte kinetics simulation for HER/HOR on Pt(111), with the potential-related rate constants been calculated with density functional theory methods. The polarization curves agree well with the experimental observations. The stability of OH* is found to be unlikely an effect…
We propose a practical way to overcome the ubiquitous problem of the overestimation of the zero-bias and zero-temperature conductance, which is associated to the use of local approximations to the exchange-correlation functional in Density-Functional Theory when applied to quantum transport. This is done through partial substitution of the local exchange term in the functional by the nonlocal Hartree-Fock exchange. As a non-trivial example of this effect we revisit the smallest molecular bridge studied so far: a Hydrogen molecule placed in between Platinum nanocontacts. When applied to this sy…
A single water molecule has nothing special. However, macroscopic water displays many anomalous properties at the interface, such as a high surface tension, hydrophobicity and hydrophillicity. Although the underlying mechanism is still elusive, hydrogen bond is expected to have played an important role. An interesting question is if the few-water molecule clusters will be qualitatively different from a single molecule. Using adsorption behavior as an example, by carefully choosing two-dimensional silicene as the substrate material, we demonstrate that water monomer, dimer and trimer show contr…
We investigate the quantum-mechanical localization of protonated and deterated isotopes in the symmetric low-barrier hydrogen-bonds of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals in the paraelectric phase. The spatial density distributions of these hydrogen atoms are suspected to be responsible for the surprisingly large isotope effect observed for the ferroelectric phase transition in KDP. We employ ab initio path integral molecular dynamics simulations to obtain the nuclear real-space and momentum-space densities n(R) and n(k) of protons and deuterons, which are compared to experimental Ne…
During many of its applications (especially as a catalyst support material), MoO3 acts as a medium for hydrogen storage via hydrogen spillover (H atom donation from proton and electron sources to a support), for which the energetics of H atoms on MoO3 are of importance. Despite the seeming simplicity of hydrogen spillover, previously reported ab initio results for the H adsorption on MoO3 contradict both experimental work and other ab initio results. In the present study, we resolve these discrepancies and provide a comprehensive ab initio understanding of H adsorption for MoO3 in the bulk and…
Hydrogen arranges at dislocations in palladium to form nanoscale hydrides, changing the vibrational spectra. An ab initio hydrogen potential energy model versus Pd neighbor distances allows us to predict the vibrational excitations for H from absolute zero up to room temperature adjacent to a partial dislocation and with strain. Using the equilibrium distribution of hydrogen with temperature, we predict excitation spectra to explain new incoherent inelastic neutron-scattering measurements. At 0K, dislocation cores trap H to form nanometer-sized hydrides, while increased temperature dissolves t…
The electronic and magnetic structures of $ {\rm ScFe_2} $ and of its dihydride $ {\rm ScFe_2H_2} $ are self-consistently calculated within the density functional theory (DFT) using the all electron augmented spherical wave (ASW) method with the local spin density approximation (LSDA) for treating effects of exchange and correlation. The results of the enhancement of the magnetization upon hydrogen insertion are assessed within an analysis of the chemical bonding properties from which we suggest that both hydrogen bond with iron and cell expansion effects play a role in the change of the magni…
Adsorption of ammonia at NH3/NH2/H covered GaN(0001) surface was analyzed using results of ab initio calculations. The whole configuration space of partially NH3/NH2/H covered GaN(0001) surface was divided into zones differently pinned Fermi level: at Ga broken bond state for dominantly bare surface (region I), at VBM for NH2 and H covered (region II), and at CBM for NH3 covered surface (region III). The extensive ab intio calculations show validity of electron counting rule (ECR) for all mixed coverage, for bordering these three regions. The adsorption was analyzed using newly identified depe…
Owing to their small mass, hydrogen atoms exhibit strong quantum behavior even at room temperature. Including these effects in first principles calculations is challenging, because of the huge computational effort required by conventional techniques. Here we present the first ab-initio application of a recently-developed stochastic scheme, which allows to approximate nuclear quantum effects inexpensively. The proton momentum distribution of lithium imide, a material of interest for hydrogen storage, was experimentally measured by inelastic neutron scattering experiments and compared with the o…
Chemical adsorption of the species at semiconductor surfaces is analyzed showing the existence of the two contributions to adsorption energy: bond creation and charge transfer. It is shown that the energy of quantum surface states is affected by the electric field at the surface, nevertheless the potential contribution of electron and nuclei cancels out. The charge transfer contribution is Fermi level independent for pinned surfaces. Thus for Fermi level pinned at the surface, the adsorption energy is independent on the Fermi energy i.e. the doping in the bulk. The DFT simulations of adsorptio…
We use ab initio density functional calculations to study the chemical functionalization of single-wall carbon nanotubes and graphene monolayers by silyl (SiH3) radicals and hydrogen. We find that silyl radicals form strong covalent bonds with graphene and nanotube walls, causing local structural relaxations that enhance the sp3 character of these graphitic nanostructures. Silylation transforms all carbon nanotubes into semiconductors, independent of their chirality. Calculated vibrational spectra suggest that specific frequency shifts can be used as a signature of successful silylation.
We employ ab initio molecular dynamics to simulate the response of hydrogenated amorphous silicon to light exposure (Staebler-Wronski effect). We obtain improved microscopic understanding of PV operation, compute the motion of H atoms, and modes of light-induced degradation of photovoltaics. We clarify existing models of light-induced change in aSi:H and show that the Hydrogen collision model of Branz3 is correct in essentials.
The assembly of complex structures is driven by an interplay between several intermolecular interactions, from strong covalent bonds to weaker dispersion forces. Surface-based self-assembly is particularly amenable to modeling and measuring these interactions in well-defined systems. This study focuses on 2-butanol, the simplest aliphatic chiral alcohol. 2-butanol shows interesting properties as a chiral modifier of surface chemistry, however, its mode of action is not fully understood. In order to probe its surface properties we employed high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy and DFT s…
The energy demands for the growing development of society need to be catered with alternative and green fuels like hydrogen energy for a lasting and sustainable culture. One essential component of the hydrogen economy is the efficiency of its storage. We have studied the hydrogen-storage capability on a recently synthesized Biphenylene (BPh) decorated with Sc using the first-principles density functional theory (DFT) and ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) techniques. Scandium attaches BPh sheet strongly with binding energy -3.84 eV, and single Sc decorated on BPh can absorb a maximum of five …