Visible light absorption of(Fe,C/N)co-doped NaTaO3:DFT+U

The effects of Fe-C/N co-doping on the electronic and optical properties of NaTaO3 are studied with density func- tional theory. Our calculations indicate that mono-doped and co-doped sodium tantalate are both thermodynamically stable. The co-doping sodium tantalate can reduce the energy band gap to a greater degree due to the synergistic effects of Fe and C （N） atoms than mono-doping sodium tantalate, and has a larger optical absorption of the whole visible spectrum. The band alignments for the doped NaTaO3 are well positioned for the feasibility of hydrogen production by water splitting. The Fe--C co-doping can enhance the absorption of the visible light and its photocatalytic activity more than Fe-N co-doping due to the different locations of impurity energy levels originating from their p-d hybridization effect.

Electronic structure and magnetic properties of rare-earth perovskite gallates from first principles

The density functional calculation is performed for centrosymmetric（La–Pm） GaO3 rare earth gallates, using a full potential linear augmented plane wave method with the LSDA and LSDA＋U exchange correlation to treat highly correlated electrons due to the very localized 4f orbitals of rare earth elements, and explore the influence of U = 0.478 Ry on the magnetic phase stability and the densities of states. LSDA＋U calculation shows that the ferromagnetic（FM） state of RGaO3 is energetically more favorable than the anti-ferromagnetic（AFM） one, except for LaGaO3 where the NM state is the lowest in energy. The energy band gaps of RGaO3 are found to be in the range of 3.8–4.0 eV, indicating the semiconductor character with a large gap.

Co-adsorption of O_2 and H_2O on α-uranium(110) surface:A density functional theory study

First-principles calculations based on density functional theory corrected by Hubbard parameter U （DFT＋U） are applied to the study on the co-adsorption of O2 and H2O molecules to a-U（110） surface. The calculation results show that DFT＋U method with Ueff = 1.5 eV can yield the experimental results of lattice constant and elastic modulus of a-uranium bulk well. Of all 7 low index surfaces of a-uranium, the （001） surface is the most stable with lowest surface energy while the （110） surface possesses the strongest activity with the highest surface energy. The adsorptions of O2 and H2O molecules are investigated separated. The O2 dissociates spontaneously in all initial configurations. For the adsorption of H2O molecule, both molecular and dissociative adsorptionsoccur. Through calculations of co-adsorption, it can be confirmed that the inhibition effect of O2 on the corrosion of uranium by water vapor originates from the preferential adsorption mechanism, while the consumption of H atoms by O atoms exerted little influence on the corrosion of uranium.

Hybrid density functional study on lattice vibration,thermodynamic properties,and chemical bonding of plutonium monocarbide

Hybrid density functional theory is employed to systematically investigate the structural,magnetic,vibrational,thermodynamic properties of plutonium monocarbide（Pu C and Pu C0.75）.For comparison,the results obtained by DFT,DFT ＋ U are also given.For Pu C and Pu C0.75,Fock-0.25 hybrid functional gives the best lattice constants and predicts the correct ground states of antiferromagnetic（AFM） structure.The calculated phonon spectra suggest that Pu C and Pu C0.75 are dynamically stable.Values of the Helmholtz free energy ？F,internal energy ？E,entropy S,and constant-volume specific heat Cv of Pu C and Pu C0.75 are given.The results are in good agreement with available experimental or theoretical data.As for the chemical bonding nature,the difference charge densities,the partial densities of states and the Bader charge analysis suggest that the Pu–C bonds of Pu C and Pu C0.75 have a mixture of covalent character and ionic character.The effect of carbon vacancy on the chemical bonding is also discussed in detail.We expect that our study can provide some useful reference for further experimental research on the phonon density of states,thermodynamic properties of the plutonium monocarbide.

Stability of the Fe12O12 cluster

Superexchange effects play an important role in the determination of crystal structures; however, there has been much less reported on how they determine the stability of dusters. Using evolutionary search strategies and DFT＋U （density functional theory with the Hubbard U correction） calculations, we investigate the global minimum-energy structures of Fe12O12 clusters. Among predicted Fe12O12 dusters, a cage-shaped Fe12O12 cluster with unexpected stability was observed. In addition, the bare Fe12O12 cluster is shown to possess an extremely large energy gap （2.00 eV）, which is greater than that of C60, Au20 and Al13- clusters. Using a Heisenberg model, we traced the origin of the unexpected stability of the bare Fe12O12 cluster to magnetic competition between the nearestneighbor exchange constant h and the next-nearest neighbor exchange constant J2 that was induced by the superexchange interactions. The bare Fe12O12 cluster is thus a unique molecule that is stable and chemically inert.