Cation Disorder and Lithium Insertion Mechanism of Wadsley-Roth Crystallographic Shear Phases from First Principles
| Autor: | Can P. Koçer, Clare P. Grey, Kent J. Griffith, Andrew J. Morris |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Griffith, Kent [0000-0002-8096-906X], Grey, Clare [0000-0001-5572-192X], Morris, Andrew [0000-0001-7453-5698], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Materials science
Oxide chemistry.chemical_element General Chemistry Electronic structure Crystal structure Tungsten 010402 general chemistry 01 natural sciences Biochemistry Catalysis cond-mat.mtrl-sci 0104 chemical sciences Metal chemistry.chemical_compound Crystallography Colloid and Surface Chemistry chemistry visual_art Lattice (order) Tetrahedron visual_art.visual_art_medium Anisotropy |
| DOI: | 10.17863/cam.44323 |
| Popis: | Wadsley-Roth crystallographic shear phases form a family of compounds that have attracted attention due to their excellent performance as lithium-ion battery electrodes. The complex crystallographic structure of these materials poses a challenge for first-principles computational modeling and hinders the understanding of their structural, electronic and dynamic properties. In this article, we study three different niobium-tungsten oxide crystallographic shear phases (Nb12WO33, Nb14W3O44, Nb16W5O55) using an enumeration-based approach and first-principles density-functional theory calculations. We report common principles governing the cation disorder, lithium insertion mechanism, and electronic structure of these materials. Tungsten preferentially occupies tetrahedral and block-central sites within the block-type crystal structures, and the local structure of the materials depends on the cation configuration. The lithium insertion proceeds via a three-step mechanism, associated with an anisotropic evolution of the host lattice. Our calculations reveal an important connection between long-range and local structural changes: in the second step of the mechanism, the removal of local structural distortions leads to the contraction of the lattice along specific crystallographic directions, buffering the volume expansion of the material. Niobium-tungsten oxide shear structures host small amounts of localized electrons during initial lithium insertion due to the confining effect of the blocks, but quickly become metallic upon further lithiation. We argue that the combination of local, long-range, and electronic structural evolution over the course of lithiation is beneficial to the performance of these materials as battery electrodes. The mechanistic principles we establish arise from the compound-independent crystallographic shear structure and are therefore likely to apply to niobium-titanium oxide or pure niobium oxide crystallographic shear phases. We acknowledge the use of Athena at HPC Midlands+, which was funded by the EPSRC on grant EP/P020232/1, in this research via the EPSRC RAP call of spring 2018. C.P.K. thanks the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability and EPSRC for financial support. K.J.G. thanks the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States and the Herchel Smith Foundation. K.J.G. and C.P.G. also thank the EPSRC for funding under a program grant (EP/M009521/1). |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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