Revealing the role of interfacial heterogeneous nucleation in the metastable thin film growth of rare-earth nickelate electronic transition materials.

Although rare-earth nickelates (ReNiO3, Re ≠ La) exhibit abundant electronic phases and widely adjustable metal to insulator electronic transition properties, their practical electronic applications are largely impeded by their intrinsic meta-stability. Apart from elevating the oxygen reaction pressure, heterogeneous nucleation is expected to be an alternative strategy that enables the crystallization of ReNiO3 at low meta-stability. In this work, the respective roles of high oxygen pressure and heterogeneous interface in triggering ReNiO3 thin film growth in the metastable state are revealed. ReNiO3 (Re = Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd and Dy) thin films grown on a LaAlO3 single crystal substrate show effective crystallization at atmospheric pressure without the necessity to apply high oxygen pressure, suggesting that the interfacial bonding between the ReNiO3 and substrates can sufficiently reduce the positive Gibbs formation energy of ReNiO3, which is further verified by the first-principles calculations. Nevertheless, the abrupt electronic transitions only appear in ReNiO3 thin films grown at high oxygen pressure, in which case the oxygen vacancies are effectively eliminated via high oxygen pressure reactions as indicated by near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) analysis. This work unveils the synergistic effects of heterogeneous nucleation and high oxygen pressure on the growth of high quality ReNiO3 thin films.

Effect of Cr-doping on the electronic structure and work function of α-Fe2O3 thin films.

We investigate the effect of Cr-doping on the properties of α-Fe2O3(001) thin films with Fe termination using the local density approximation plus a Hubbard U correction. We find that both the doping site and concentration of Cr atoms dramatically affect the electronic structure and work function (WF) of α-Fe2O3 films. The results demonstrate that it is most energetically favorable for Cr atoms to substitute the Fe atoms in the sub-surface of α-Fe2O3 thin films. The doping of Cr atoms in the sub-surface not only lowers the band gap of the film but also greatly enhances the work function by 0.9 eV with respect to the pure α-Fe2O3 film. The increase of WF correlates with the reduction of occupied O px/py states at the top valence band which leads to a decrease of the Fermi energy. As the Cr concentration changes from 4.2% to 16.7%, the WF firstly increases, and then drops. The WF reaches a maximum of 6.61 eV for the Cr concentration of 8.3%. These results suggest that doping Cr atoms in a α-Fe2O3(001) thin film can increase the corrosion potential and benefits the protection of steel from corrosion.

Copper content effects on passive film of modified 00Cr20Ni18Mo6CuN super austenitic stainless steels in acidic environment.

To provide a theoretical basis for the design of super austenitic stainless steel used in flue gas desulfurization environment, by changing the Cu content in 00Cr20Ni18Mo6CuN super austenitic stainless steel to explore the influence of Cu on its corrosion resistance, by electrochemical methods, XPS and first-principle computational simulations. The results show that Cu promotes the selective dissolution of Fe, Cr and Mo in stainless steel, and the copper content changes the proportion of compounds in the passive film, as well as its surface quality, resistance and defect density. The addition of one Cu atom increases the adsorption energy and work function of NH3 on Cr2O3 surface, reduces the charge transfer and hybridization. However, when the Cu content exceeds 1 wt%, the surface of the passive film is loose and has many defects. The appearance of oxygen vacancy and two Cu atoms leads to the decrease of adsorption energy and work function, and enhances the charge transfer and hybrid effect. The optimal Cu content is obtained through research, which not only improves the corrosion resistance of 00Cr20Ni18Mo6CuN super austenitic stainless steel in flue gas desulfurization environment, prolonging the service life of 00Cr20Ni18Mo6CuN super austenitic stainless steel, but also has practical application value.

Application of DFT Simulation to the Investigation of Hydrogen Embrittlement Mechanism and Design of High Strength Low Alloy Steel.

In this work, first-principles methods were performed to simulate interactions between hydrogen and common alloying elements of high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel. The world has been convinced that hydrogen could be one of the future clean energy sources. HSLA steel with a balance of strength, toughness, and hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility is expected for application in large-scale hydrogen storage and transportation. To evaluate the property deterioration under a hydrogen atmosphere, hydrogen embrittlement (HE) of HSLA steel attracts attention. However, due to the small size of hydrogen atoms, the mechanism of HE is challenging to observe directly by current experimental methods. To understand the HE mechanism at an atomic level, DFT methods were applied to simulate the effects of alloying elements doping in bcc-Fe bulk structure and grain boundary structure. Furthermore, the potential application of DFT to provide theoretical advice for HSLA steel design is discussed.

Selective Growth of Stacking Fault Free ⟨100⟩ Nanowires on a Polycrystalline Substrate for Energy Conversion Application.

Cubic semiconductor nanowires grown along ⟨100⟩ directions have been reported to be promising for optoelectronics and energy conversion applications, owing to their pure zinc-blende structure without any stacking fault. But, until date, only limited success has been achieved in growing ⟨100⟩ oriented nanowires. Here we report the selective growth of stacking fault free ⟨100⟩ nanowires on a commercial transparent conductive polycrystalline fluorine-doped SnO2 (FTO) glass substrate via a simple and cost-effective chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. By means of crystallographic analysis and density functional theory calculation, we prove that the orientation relationship between the Au catalyst and the FTO substrate play a vital role in inducing the selective growth of ⟨100⟩ nanowires, which opens a new pathway for controlling the growth directions of nanowires via the elaborate selection of the catalyst and substrate couples during the vapor-solid-liquid (VLS) growth process. The ZnSe nanowires grown on the FTO substrate are further applied as a photoanode in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. It exhibits a higher photocurrent than the ZnSe nanowires do without preferential orientations on a Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) glass substrate, which we believe to be correlated with the smooth transport of charge carriers in ZnSe ⟨100⟩ nanowires with pure zinc-blende structures, in distinct contrast with the severe electron scattering happened at the stacking faults in ZnSe nanowires on the ITO substrate, as well as the efficient charge transfer across the intensively interacting nanowire-substrate interfaces.

Prevention of Hydrogen Damage Using MoS2 Coating on Iron Surface.

The prevention of hydrogen penetration into steels can effectively protect steels from hydrogen damage. In this study, we investigated the effect of a monolayer MoS2 coating on hydrogen prevention using first-principles calculations. We found that monolayer MoS2 can effectively inhibit the dissociative adsorption of hydrogen molecules on an Fe(111) surface by forming a S⁻H bond. MoS2 coating acts as an energy barrier, interrupting hydrogen penetration. Furthermore, compared with the H-adsorbed Fe(111) film, the work function of the MoS2-coated film significantly increases under both equilibrium and strained conditions, indicating that the strained Fe(111) film with the MoS2 coating also becomes more corrosion resistant. The results reveal that MoS2 film is an effective coating to prevent hydrogen damage in steels.

Strain Effect on Electronic Structure and Work Function in α-Fe2O3 Films.

We investigate the electronic structure and work function modulation of α-Fe2O3 films by strain based on the density functional method. We find that the band gap of clean α-Fe2O3 films is a function of the strain and is influenced significantly by the element termination on the surface. The px and py orbitals keep close to Fermi level and account for a pronounced narrowing band gap under compressive strain, while unoccupied dz2 orbitals from conduction band minimum draw nearer to Fermi level and are responsible for the pronounced narrowing band gap under tensile strain. The spin polarized surface state, arising from localized dangling-bond states, is insensitive to strain, while the bulk band, especially for pz orbital, arising from extended Bloch states, is very sensitive to strain, which plays an important role for work function decreasing (increasing) under compressive (tensile) strain in Fe termination films. In particular, the work function in O terminated films is insensitive to strain because pz orbitals are less sensitive to strain than that of Fe termination films. Our findings confirm that the strain is an effective means to manipulate electronic structures and corrosion potential.