1
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Ke S, Mangum JS, Zakutayev A, Greenaway AL, Neaton JB. First-Principles Studies of the Electronic and Optical Properties of Zinc Titanium Nitride: The Role of Cation Disorder. Chem Mater 2024; 36:3164-3176. [PMID: 38617805 PMCID: PMC11008105 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c02696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
Cation disorder is an established feature of heterovalent ternary nitrides, a promising class of semiconductor materials. A recently synthesized wurtzite-family ternary nitride, ZnTiN2, shows potential for durable photoelectrochemical applications with a measured optical absorption onset of 2 eV, which is 1.4 eV lower than previously predicted, a large difference attributed to cation disorder. Here, we use first-principles calculations based on density functional theory to establish the role of cation disorder in the electronic and optical properties of ZnTiN2. We compute antisite defect arrangement formation energies for one hundred 128-atom supercells and analyze their trends and their effect on electronic structures, rationalizing experimental results. We demonstrate that charge imbalance created by antisite defects in Ti and N local environments, respectively, broadens the conduction and valence bands near the band edges, reducing the band gap relative to the cation-ordered limit, a general mechanism relevant to other multivalent ternary nitrides. Charge-imbalanced antisite defect arrangements that lead to N-centered tetrahedral motifs fully coordinated by Zn are the most energetically costly and introduce localized in-gap states; cation arrangements that better preserve local charge balance have smaller formation energies and have less impact on the electronic structure. Our work provides insights into the nature of cation disorder in the newly synthesized semiconductor ZnTiN2, with implications for its performance in energy applications, and provides a baseline for the future study of controlling cation order in ZnTiN2 and other ternary nitrides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sijia Ke
- Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, University
of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chemical
Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - John S. Mangum
- Materials,
Chemistry, and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Andriy Zakutayev
- Materials,
Chemistry, and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Ann L. Greenaway
- Materials,
Chemistry, and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Jeffrey B. Neaton
- Department
of Physics, University of California at
Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Materials
Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Kavli Energy
NanoSciences Institute at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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2
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Dinh KH, Roussel P, Lethien C. Advances on Microsupercapacitors: Real Fast Miniaturized Devices toward Technological Dreams for Powering Embedded Electronics? ACS Omega 2023; 8:8977-8990. [PMID: 36936327 PMCID: PMC10018517 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Microsupercapacitors (MSCs) have emerged as the next generation of electrochemical energy storage sources for powering miniaturized embedded electronic and Internet of Things devices. Despite many advantages such as high-power density, long cycle life, fast charge/discharge rate, and moderate energy density, MSCs are not at the industrial level in 2022, while the first MSC was published more than 20 years ago. MSC performance is strongly correlated to electrode material, device configuration, and the used electrolyte. There are therefore many questions and scientific/technological locks to be overcome in order to raise the technological readiness level of this technology to an industrial stage: the type of electrode material, device topology/configuration, and use of a solid electrolyte with high ionic conductivity and photopatternable capabilities are key parameters that we have to optimize in order to fulfill the requirements. Carbon-based, pseudocapacitive materials such as transition metal oxide, transition metal nitride, and MXene used in symmetric or asymmetric configurations are extensively investigated. In this Review, the current progress toward the fabrication of MSCs is summarized. Challenges and prospectives to improve the performance of MSCs are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khac Huy Dinh
- Institut
d’Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologies,
Université de Lille, CNRS, Université Polytechnique
Hauts-de-France, UMR 8520 - IEMN, F-59000 Lille, France
- Unité
de Catalyse et de Chimie du Solide (UCCS), Université de Lille,
CNRS, Centrale Lille, Université d’Artois, UMR 8181
− UCCS, F-59000 Lille, France
- Réseau
sur le Stockage Electrochimique de l’Energie (RS2E), CNRS FR
3459, 33 rue Saint Leu, 80039 Amiens Cedex, France
| | - Pascal Roussel
- Unité
de Catalyse et de Chimie du Solide (UCCS), Université de Lille,
CNRS, Centrale Lille, Université d’Artois, UMR 8181
− UCCS, F-59000 Lille, France
| | - Christophe Lethien
- Institut
d’Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologies,
Université de Lille, CNRS, Université Polytechnique
Hauts-de-France, UMR 8520 - IEMN, F-59000 Lille, France
- Réseau
sur le Stockage Electrochimique de l’Energie (RS2E), CNRS FR
3459, 33 rue Saint Leu, 80039 Amiens Cedex, France
- Institut
Universitaire de France (IUF), 75005 Paris, France
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3
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Wang R, Sun Y, Zhang F, Zheng F, Fang Y, Wu S, Dong H, Wang CZ, Antropov V, Ho KM. High-Throughput Screening of Strong Electron–Phonon Couplings in Ternary Metal Diborides. Inorg Chem 2022; 61:18154-18161. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c02829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Renhai Wang
- School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou510006, China
| | - Yang Sun
- Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa50011, United States
- Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York10027, United States
| | - Feng Zhang
- Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa50011, United States
- Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa50011, United States
| | - Feng Zheng
- Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen361005, China
| | - Yimei Fang
- Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen361005, China
| | - Shunqing Wu
- Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen361005, China
| | - Huafeng Dong
- School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou510006, China
| | - Cai-Zhuang Wang
- Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa50011, United States
- Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa50011, United States
| | - Vladimir Antropov
- Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa50011, United States
- Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa50011, United States
| | - Kai-Ming Ho
- Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa50011, United States
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4
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Greenaway AL, Ke S, Culman T, Talley KR, Mangum JS, Heinselman KN, Kingsbury RS, Smaha RW, Gish MK, Miller EM, Persson KA, Gregoire JM, Bauers SR, Neaton JB, Tamboli AC, Zakutayev A. Zinc Titanium Nitride Semiconductor toward Durable Photoelectrochemical Applications. J Am Chem Soc 2022; 144:13673-13687. [PMID: 35857885 PMCID: PMC9354241 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c04241] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
![]()
Photoelectrochemical fuel generation is a promising route
to sustainable
liquid fuels produced from water and captured carbon dioxide with
sunlight as the energy input. Development of these technologies requires
photoelectrode materials that are both photocatalytically active and
operationally stable in harsh oxidative and/or reductive electrochemical
environments. Such photocatalysts can be discovered based on co-design
principles, wherein design for stability is based on the propensity
for the photocatalyst to self-passivate under operating conditions
and design for photoactivity is based on the ability to integrate
the photocatalyst with established semiconductor substrates. Here,
we report on the synthesis and characterization of zinc titanium nitride
(ZnTiN2) that follows these design rules by having a wurtzite-derived
crystal structure and showing self-passivating surface oxides created
by electrochemical polarization. The sputtered ZnTiN2 thin
films have optical absorption onsets below 2 eV and n-type electrical
conduction of 3 S/cm. The band gap of this material is reduced from
the 3.36 eV theoretical value by cation-site disorder, and the impact
of cation antisites on the band structure of ZnTiN2 is
explored using density functional theory. Under electrochemical polarization,
the ZnTiN2 surfaces have TiO2- or ZnO-like character,
consistent with Materials Project Pourbaix calculations predicting
the formation of stable solid phases under near-neutral pH. These
results show that ZnTiN2 is a promising candidate for photoelectrochemical
liquid fuel generation and demonstrate a new materials design approach
to other photoelectrodes with self-passivating native operational
surface chemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann L Greenaway
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Sijia Ke
- Materials and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.,Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Theodore Culman
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Kevin R Talley
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - John S Mangum
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Karen N Heinselman
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Ryan S Kingsbury
- Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Rebecca W Smaha
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Melissa K Gish
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Elisa M Miller
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Kristin A Persson
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.,Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - John M Gregoire
- Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
| | - Sage R Bauers
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Jeffrey B Neaton
- Materials and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.,Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.,Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Adele C Tamboli
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States.,Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Andriy Zakutayev
- Materials Chemical and Computational Science Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
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5
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Abstract
Ternary nitride materials hold promise for many optical, electronic, and refractory applications; yet, their preparation via solid-state synthesis remains challenging. Often, high pressures or reactive gases are used to manipulate the effective chemical potential of nitrogen, yet these strategies require specialized equipment. Here, we report on a simple two-step synthesis using ion-exchange reactions that yield rocksalt-derived MgZrN2 and Mg2NbN3, as well as layered MgMoN2. All three compounds show almost temperature-independent and weak paramagnetic responses to an applied magnetic field at cryogenic temperatures, indicating phase-pure products. The key to synthesizing these ternary materials is an initial low-temperature step (300-450 °C) to promote Mg-M-N nucleation. The intermediates then are annealed (800-900 °C) to grow crystalline domains of the ternary product. Calorimetry experiments reveal that initial reaction temperatures are determined by phase transitions of reaction precursors, whereas heating directly to high temperatures results in decomposition. These two-step reactions provide a rational guide to material discovery of other bulk ternary nitrides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul K. Todd
- Material
Science Center, National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - M. Jewels Fallon
- Department
of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1872, United States
| | - James R. Neilson
- Department
of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1872, United States
| | - Andriy Zakutayev
- Material
Science Center, National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
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6
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Zakutayev A. Synthesis of Zn 2NbN 3ternary nitride semiconductor with wurtzite-derived crystal structure. J Phys Condens Matter 2021; 33:354003. [PMID: 33887709 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/abfab3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Binary III-N nitride semiconductors with wurtzite crystal structure such as GaN and AlN have been long used in many practical applications ranging from optoelectronics to telecommunication. The structurally related ZnGeN2or ZnSnN2derived from the parent binary compounds by cation mutation (elemental substitution) have recently attracted attention, but such ternary nitride materials are mostly limited to II-IV-N2compositions. This paper demonstrates synthesis and characterization of zinc niobium nitride (Zn2NbN3)-a previously unreported II2-V-N3ternary nitride semiconductor. The Zn2NbN3thin films are synthesized using a one-step adsorption-controlled growth that locks in the targeted stoichiometry, and a two-step deposition/annealing method that suppresses the loss of Zn and N. Measurements indicate that this sputtered Zn2NbN3crystalizes in cation-disordered wurtzite-derived structure, in contrast to chemically related rocksalt-derived Mg2NbN3compound, also synthesized here for comparison using the two-step method. The estimated wurtzite lattice parameter ratio of Zn2NbN3is 1.55, and the optical absorption onset is at 2.1 eV. Both of these values are lower compared to published Zn2NbN3computational values ofc/a= 1.62 andEg= 3.5-3.6 eV. Additional theoretical calculations indicate that this difference is due to cation disorder in experimental samples, suggesting a way to tune the structural parameters and the resulting properties of heterovalent ternary nitride materials. Overall, this work expands the wurtzite family of nitride semiconductors to include Zn2NbN3, and suggests that related II2-V-N3and other ternary nitrides should be possible to synthesize.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andriy Zakutayev
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO 80401 United States of America
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7
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Abstract
Materials design from first principles enables exploration of uncharted chemical spaces. Extensive computational searches have been performed for mixed-cation ternary compounds, but mixed-anion systems are gaining increased interest as well. Central to computational discovery is the crystal structure prediction, where the trade-off between reliance on prototype structures and size limitations of unconstrained sampling has to be navigated. We approach this challenge by letting two complementary structure sampling approaches compete. We use the kinetically limited minimization approach for high-throughput unconstrained crystal structure prediction in smaller cells up to 21 atoms. On the other hand, ternary-and, more generally, multinary-systems often assume structures formed by atomic ordering on a lattice derived from a binary parent structure. Thus, we additionally sample atomic configurations on prototype lattices with cells up to 56 atoms. Using this approach, we searched 65 different charge-balanced oxide-nitride stoichiometries, including six known systems as the control sample. The convex hull analysis is performed both for the thermodynamic limit and for the case of synthesis with activated nitrogen sources. We identified 34 phases that are either on the convex hull or within a viable energy window for potentially metastable phases. We further performed structure sampling for "missing" binary nitrides whose energies are needed for the convex hull analysis. Among these, we discovered metastable Ce3N4 as a nitride analog of the tetravalent cerium oxide, which becomes stable under slightly activated nitrogen condition ΔμN > +0.07 eV. Given the outsize role of CeO2 in research and application, Ce3N4 is a potentially important discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abhishek Sharan
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA
| | - Stephan Lany
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA
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8
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Breternitz J, Schorr S. Symmetry relations in wurtzite nitrides and oxide nitrides and the curious case of Pmc2 1. Acta Crystallogr A Found Adv 2021; 77:208-216. [PMID: 33944799 PMCID: PMC8127388 DOI: 10.1107/s2053273320015971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Accepted: 12/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Binary and multinary nitrides in a wurtzitic arrangement are very interesting semiconductor materials. The group–subgroup relationship between the different structural types is established. Binary III–V nitrides such as AlN, GaN and InN in the wurtzite-type structure have long been considered as potent semiconducting materials because of their optoelectronic properties, amongst others. With rising concerns over the utilization of scarce elements, a replacement of the trivalent cations by others in ternary and multinary nitrides has led to the development of different variants of nitrides and oxide nitrides crystallizing in lower-symmetry variants of wurtzite. This work presents the symmetry relationships between these structural types specific to nitrides and oxide nitrides and updates some prior work on this matter. The non-existence of compounds crystallizing in Pmc21, formally the highest subgroup of the wurtzite type fulfilling Pauling’s rules for 1:1:2 stoichiometries, has been puzzling scientists for a while; a rationalization is given, from a crystallographic basis, of why this space group is unlikely to be adopted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joachim Breternitz
- Structure and Dynamics of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin, Germany
| | - Susan Schorr
- Structure and Dynamics of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin, Germany
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9
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Greenaway AL, Loutris AL, Heinselman KN, Melamed CL, Schnepf RR, Tellekamp MB, Woods-Robinson R, Sherbondy R, Bardgett D, Bauers S, Zakutayev A, Christensen ST, Lany S, Tamboli AC. Combinatorial Synthesis of Magnesium Tin Nitride Semiconductors. J Am Chem Soc 2020; 142:8421-8430. [PMID: 32279492 PMCID: PMC10905991 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c02092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Nitride materials feature strong chemical bonding character that leads to unique crystal structures, but many ternary nitride chemical spaces remain experimentally unexplored. The search for previously undiscovered ternary nitrides is also an opportunity to explore unique materials properties, such as transitions between cation-ordered and -disordered structures, as well as to identify candidate materials for optoelectronic applications. Here, we present a comprehensive experimental study of MgSnN2, an emerging II-IV-N2 compound, for the first time mapping phase composition and crystal structure, and examining its optoelectronic properties computationally and experimentally. We demonstrate combinatorial cosputtering of cation-disordered, wurtzite-type MgSnN2 across a range of cation compositions and temperatures, as well as the unexpected formation of a secondary, rocksalt-type phase of MgSnN2 at Mg-rich compositions and low temperatures. A computational structure search shows that the rocksalt-type phase is substantially metastable (>70 meV/atom) compared to the wurtzite-type ground state. Spectroscopic ellipsometry reveals optical absorption onsets around 2 eV, consistent with band gap tuning via cation disorder. Finally, we demonstrate epitaxial growth of a mixed wurtzite-rocksalt MgSnN2 on GaN, highlighting an opportunity for polymorphic control via epitaxy. Collectively, these findings lay the groundwork for further exploration of MgSnN2 as a model ternary nitride, with controlled polymorphism, and for device applications, enabled by control of optoelectronic properties via cation ordering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann L. Greenaway
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Amanda L. Loutris
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Karen N. Heinselman
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Celeste L. Melamed
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department
of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Rekha R. Schnepf
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department
of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - M. Brooks Tellekamp
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Rachel Woods-Robinson
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Applied
Science and Technology Graduate Group, University
of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Energy
Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94702, United States
| | - Rachel Sherbondy
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department
of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Dylan Bardgett
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Sage Bauers
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Andriy Zakutayev
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Steven T. Christensen
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Stephan Lany
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Adele C. Tamboli
- Materials
and Chemistry Science and Technology Directorate, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department
of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
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10
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Bauers SR, Holder A, Sun W, Melamed CL, Woods-Robinson R, Mangum J, Perkins J, Tumas W, Gorman B, Tamboli A, Ceder G, Lany S, Zakutayev A. Ternary nitride semiconductors in the rocksalt crystal structure. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:14829-14834. [PMID: 31270238 PMCID: PMC6660719 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1904926116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Inorganic nitrides with wurtzite crystal structures are well-known semiconductors used in optical and electronic devices. In contrast, rocksalt-structured nitrides are known for their superconducting and refractory properties. Breaking this dichotomy, here we report ternary nitride semiconductors with rocksalt crystal structures, remarkable electronic properties, and the general chemical formula Mgx TM 1-xN (TM = Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb). Our experiments show that these materials form over a broad metal composition range, and that Mg-rich compositions are nondegenerate semiconductors with visible-range optical absorption onsets (1.8 to 2.1 eV) and up to 100 cm2 V-1⋅s-1 electron mobility for MgZrN2 grown on MgO substrates. Complementary ab initio calculations reveal that these materials have disorder-tunable optical absorption, large dielectric constants, and electronic bandgaps that are relatively insensitive to disorder. These ternary Mgx TM 1-xN semiconductors are also structurally compatible both with binary TMN superconductors and main-group nitride semiconductors along certain crystallographic orientations. Overall, these results highlight Mgx TM 1-xN as a class of materials combining the semiconducting properties of main-group wurtzite nitrides and rocksalt structure of superconducting transition-metal nitrides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sage R Bauers
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401;
| | - Aaron Holder
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309
| | - Wenhao Sun
- Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Celeste L Melamed
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401
- Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401
| | - Rachel Woods-Robinson
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401
- Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
- Applied Science and Technology Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - John Mangum
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401
| | - John Perkins
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401
| | - William Tumas
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401
| | - Brian Gorman
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401
| | - Adele Tamboli
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401
| | - Gerbrand Ceder
- Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Stephan Lany
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401
| | - Andriy Zakutayev
- Materials Science Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401;
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11
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Talley KR, Bauers SR, Melamed CL, Papac MC, Heinselman KN, Khan I, Roberts DM, Jacobson V, Mis A, Brennecka GL, Perkins JD, Zakutayev A. COMBIgor: Data-Analysis Package for Combinatorial Materials Science. ACS Comb Sci 2019; 21:537-547. [PMID: 31121098 DOI: 10.1021/acscombsci.9b00077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Combinatorial experiments involve synthesis of sample libraries with lateral composition gradients requiring spatially resolved characterization of structure and properties. Because of the maturation of combinatorial methods and their successful application in many fields, the modern combinatorial laboratory produces diverse and complex data sets requiring advanced analysis and visualization techniques. In order to utilize these large data sets to uncover new knowledge, the combinatorial scientist must engage in data science. For data science tasks, most laboratories adopt common-purpose data management and visualization software. However, processing and cross-correlating data from various measurement tools is no small task for such generic programs. Here we describe COMBIgor, a purpose-built open-source software package written in the commercial Igor Pro environment and designed to offer a systematic approach to loading, storing, processing, and visualizing combinatorial data. It includes (1) methods for loading and storing data sets from combinatorial libraries, (2) routines for streamlined data processing, and (3) data-analysis and -visualization features to construct figures. Most importantly, COMBIgor is designed to be easily customized by a laboratory, group, or individual in order to integrate additional instruments and data-processing algorithms. Utilizing the capabilities of COMBIgor can significantly reduce the burden of data management on the combinatorial scientist.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin R. Talley
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Sage R. Bauers
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Celeste L. Melamed
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Meagan C. Papac
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Karen N. Heinselman
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Imran Khan
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Dennice M. Roberts
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States
| | - Valerie Jacobson
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Allison Mis
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Geoff L. Brennecka
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - John D. Perkins
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
| | - Andriy Zakutayev
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
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Sun W, Bartel CJ, Arca E, Bauers SR, Matthews B, Orvañanos B, Chen BR, Toney MF, Schelhas LT, Tumas W, Tate J, Zakutayev A, Lany S, Holder AM, Ceder G. A map of the inorganic ternary metal nitrides. Nat Mater 2019; 18:732-739. [PMID: 31209391 DOI: 10.1038/s41563-019-0396-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 101] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2018] [Accepted: 05/05/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Exploratory synthesis in new chemical spaces is the essence of solid-state chemistry. However, uncharted chemical spaces can be difficult to navigate, especially when materials synthesis is challenging. Nitrides represent one such space, where stringent synthesis constraints have limited the exploration of this important class of functional materials. Here, we employ a suite of computational materials discovery and informatics tools to construct a large stability map of the inorganic ternary metal nitrides. Our map clusters the ternary nitrides into chemical families with distinct stability and metastability, and highlights hundreds of promising new ternary nitride spaces for experimental investigation-from which we experimentally realized seven new Zn- and Mg-based ternary nitrides. By extracting the mixed metallicity, ionicity and covalency of solid-state bonding from the density functional theory (DFT)-computed electron density, we reveal the complex interplay between chemistry, composition and electronic structure in governing large-scale stability trends in ternary nitride materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenhao Sun
- Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | - Christopher J Bartel
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | | | - Sage R Bauers
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA
| | - Bethany Matthews
- Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Bernardo Orvañanos
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Bor-Rong Chen
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA
| | | | | | - William Tumas
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA
| | - Janet Tate
- Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | | | - Stephan Lany
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA
| | - Aaron M Holder
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA.
| | - Gerbrand Ceder
- Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
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Tareen AK, Priyanga GS, Behara S, Thomas T, Yang M. Mixed ternary transition metal nitrides: A comprehensive review of synthesis, electronic structure, and properties of engineering relevance. PROG SOLID STATE CH 2019; 53:1-26. [DOI: 10.1016/j.progsolidstchem.2018.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
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14
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Bartel CJ, Millican SL, Deml AM, Rumptz JR, Tumas W, Weimer AW, Lany S, Stevanović V, Musgrave CB, Holder AM. Physical descriptor for the Gibbs energy of inorganic crystalline solids and temperature-dependent materials chemistry. Nat Commun 2018; 9:4168. [PMID: 30301890 PMCID: PMC6177451 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06682-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2018] [Accepted: 09/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The Gibbs energy, G, determines the equilibrium conditions of chemical reactions and materials stability. Despite this fundamental and ubiquitous role, G has been tabulated for only a small fraction of known inorganic compounds, impeding a comprehensive perspective on the effects of temperature and composition on materials stability and synthesizability. Here, we use the SISSO (sure independence screening and sparsifying operator) approach to identify a simple and accurate descriptor to predict G for stoichiometric inorganic compounds with ~50 meV atom-1 (~1 kcal mol-1) resolution, and with minimal computational cost, for temperatures ranging from 300-1800 K. We then apply this descriptor to ~30,000 known materials curated from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD). Using the resulting predicted thermochemical data, we generate thousands of temperature-dependent phase diagrams to provide insights into the effects of temperature and composition on materials synthesizability and stability and to establish the temperature-dependent scale of metastability for inorganic compounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J Bartel
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
| | - Samantha L Millican
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
| | - Ann M Deml
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 80401, USA
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, 80401, USA
| | - John R Rumptz
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
| | - William Tumas
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, 80401, USA
| | - Alan W Weimer
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
| | - Stephan Lany
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, 80401, USA
| | - Vladan Stevanović
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 80401, USA
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, 80401, USA
| | - Charles B Musgrave
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA.
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, 80401, USA.
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA.
| | - Aaron M Holder
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA.
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, 80401, USA.
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