User Applications Driven by the Community Contribution Framework MPContribs in the Materials Project

This work discusses how the MPContribs framework in the Materials Project (MP) allows user-contributed data to be shown and analyzed alongside the core MP database. The Materials Project is a searchable database of electronic structure properties of over 65,000 bulk solid materials that is accessible through a web-based science-gateway. We describe the motivation for enabling user contributions to the materials data and present the framework's features and challenges in the context of two real applications. These use-cases illustrate how scientific collaborations can build applications with their own "user-contributed" data using MPContribs. The Nanoporous Materials Explorer application provides a unique search interface to a novel dataset of hundreds of thousands of materials, each with tables of user-contributed values related to material adsorption and density at varying temperature and pressure. The Unified Theoretical and Experimental x-ray Spectroscopy application discusses a full workflow for the association, dissemination and combined analyses of experimental data from the Advanced Light Source with MP's theoretical core data, using MPContribs tools for data formatting, management and exploration. The capabilities being developed for these collaborations are serving as the model for how new materials data can be incorporated into the Materials Project website with minimal staff overhead while giving powerful tools for data search and display to the user community.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of 10th Gateway Computing Environments Workshop (2015), to be published in "Concurrency in Computation: Practice and Experience

Designing transparent conductors using forbidden optical transitions

Many semiconductors present weak or forbidden transitions at their fundamental band gaps, inducing a widened region of transparency. This occurs in high-performing n-type transparent conductors (TCs) such as Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO), however thus far the presence of forbidden transitions has been neglected in searches for new p-type TCs. To address this, we first compute high-throughput absorption spectra across ~18,000 semiconductors, showing that over half exhibit forbidden or weak optical transitions at their band edges. Next, we demonstrate that compounds with highly localized band edge states are more likely to present forbidden transitions. Lastly, we search this set for p-type and n-type TCs with forbidden or weak transitions. Defect calculations yield unexplored TC candidates such as ambipolar BeSiP2, Zr2SN2 and KSe, p-type BAs, Au2S, and AuCl, and n-type Ba2InGaO5, GaSbO4, and KSbO3, among others. We share our data set via the MPContribs platform, and we recommend that future screenings for optical properties use metrics representative of absorption features rather than band gap alone

Perovskite Materials Design for Two-Step Solar-Thermochemical Redox Cycles

Solar-thermochemische Redoxzyklen stellen eine vielversprechende Technologieoption zur Nutzung und Umwandlung von erneuerbaren Energiequellen dar. Durch Reduktion von Metalloxiden bei hoher Temperatur und/oder niedrigem Sauerstoffpartialdruck kann ein Material in einen Zustand überführt werden, der dazu geeignet ist, Sauerstoff aus einem Gasstrom zu entfernen oder Wasser bzw. Kohlenstoffdioxid zu spalten. Dadurch ist es möglich, Luft zu zerlegen oder Sauerstoff zu pumpen, sowie sogenannte solare Brennstoffe zu erzeugen. Eine besonders vielversprechende Materialklasse stellen dabei die Perowskite dar. Diese Materialien bilden stabile Phasen mit sehr unterschiedlichen Zusammensetzungen. In dieser Arbeit wird gezeigt, wie diese Perowskit-Oxide in thermochemischen Redoxzyklen verwendet werden können und die Mechanismen hinter diesen Redoxreaktionen werden mit in-situ-Röntgenuntersuchungen aufgeklärt. Es wird auch gezeigt, dass die kinetischen Parameter der Oxidationsreaktion sehr vielversprechend sind. Zudem wird demonstriert, wie feste Lösungen aus Perowskiten in einem weiten Bereich verschiedener Zusammensetzungen hergestellt werden können und wie die Zusammensetzung der Perowskite die Phasenbildung und Stabilität beinflusst. Mit diesem Wissen wird ein Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit auf die thermodynamischen Eigenschaften dieser Perowskite gelegt. Eine neue Methode der gezielten Materialentwicklung wird demonstriert, welche darauf basiert, den Toleranzfaktor und die thermodynamischen Eigenschaften der Perowskite gezielt einzustellen. Sowohl experimentelle, als auch theoretische Untersuchungen werden durchgeführt, letzere basierend auf Dichtefunktionaltheorie (DFT) im Rahmen von „Materials Project“. Über 240 Perowskit-Brownmillerit-Paare wurden untersucht. Detaillierte Modelle wurden entwickelt, um die thermodynamischen Eigenschaften solcher fester Lösungen aus Perowskiten als eine Funktion der Temperatur, des Sauerstoffpartialdrucks, und der Sauerstoff-Fehlstellenkonzentration zu beschreiben. Mit Hilfe dieser Funktionen wurde ein interaktiver Beitrag im Rahmen von Materials Project entwickelt, mit dem Materialeigenschaften in einem weiten Bereich verschiedener Bedingungen untersucht werden können. Darin ist auch eine Perowskit-Suchmaschine enthalten. Diese verwendet ein vereinfachtes Prozessmodell, um den materialspezifischen Energiebedarf von Redoxzyklen auszuwerten und ermöglicht es so, das effizienteste Material basierend auf den Prozessbedingungen auszuwählen. Es konnten neue Redoxmaterialien zur Anwendung in thermochemischen Kreisprozessen identifiziert werden und es wurde festgestellt, dass Perowskite die Effizienz der solaren Brennstofferzeugung bei vergleichsweise niedrigen Reduktionstemperaturen von 1300-1400 °C erhöhen können. So soll eine höhere Reaktorlebensdauer erreicht werden. Es wird auch diskutiert, welche Faktoren die Prozesseffizienz beeinflussen und es werden Ideen präsentiert, welche Schritte nötig sind, um eine kommerzielle Nutzung zu ermöglichen. Der wichtigste Faktor ist dabei die Wärmerückgewinnungseffizienz zwischen Feststoffen. Durch die Veröffentlichung aller Daten im Rahmen von MPContribs/Materials Project durch das Erstellen von interaktiven Graphen wird eine wertvolle Ressource zur schnelleren und zielgerichteten Materialentwicklung bereitgestellt.Solar-thermochemical redox cycles are a promising technological option in the framework of utilization and conversion of renewable energy. By reducing metal oxides at high temperature and/or low oxygen partial pressure, one can generate a material in a state which can be used to capture oxygen from a gas stream or split water or carbon dioxide. By this means, air can be separated, oxygen can be pumped, or so-called solar fuels can be generated. One especially attractive materials class for application in such redox cycles is constituted by perovskites. These materials form stable phases over a large compositional range. Within this work, we show how these perovskite oxides can be applied in thermochemical redox cycles and study the mechanisms behind these redox reactions using in-situ X-Ray techniques. We also show that the kinetic properties of the oxidation reaction are very appealing. It is furthermore presented how perovskite solid solutions can be formed over a large compositional range and how phase formation and stability are affected by the perovskite composition. Based on this knowledge, the focus of this work is set on the materials thermodynamics. A new method of rational perovskite materials design is developed by adjusting the tolerance factor of the perovskites and their thermodynamics. Both experimental and theoretical materials development are conducted, the latter based on density functional theory (DFT) within the framework of the online resource “Materials Project”. Over 240 perovsite-brownmillerite pairs are included in the search. Detailed models describing the thermodynamics of such perovskite solid solutions are established which allow describing the perovskite redox properties as a function of the temperature, oxygen partial pressure, and oxygen non-stoichiometry . Using these functions, we developed an interactive tool within the framework of Materials Project, which can be used to model materials properties for a large range of conditions and also serves as a perovskite search engine. This search engine uses a simplified process model to evaluate the material-specific energy demand of a thermochemical redox process and allows finding the most efficient materials choice for a large range of different operational parameters. We could identify new redox materials for application in such processes and found that perovskites can lead to more efficient thermochemical fuels production than the state of the art, especially if the reduction temperature is lowered to 1300-1400 °C to reach higher reactor longevity. It is also discussed which factors affect the overall process efficiency to which extent, and suggestions are given which steps are necessary for a commercialization of such redox processes. The most important factor is the solid-solid heat recovery efficiency. By making all this data publicly available in the framework of MPContribs/Materials Project through providing user-controlled interactive graphs, we are providing a valuable resource for accelerating the discovery and use of new redox materials

A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR MATERIAL INFORMATICS AND ITS APPLICATION TOWARD ELECTRIDE-HALIDE MATERIAL SYSTEMS

Despite many years of material exploration, the vast majority of unique crystalline materials remain undiscovered, and these undiscovered materials may offer stronger steels, better catalysts, improved transistors, and many other solutions to urgent societal problems. We therefore need a fast and efficient way of identifying new materials so that society can harness their benefits. To aid in accelerated materials discovery, this dissertation describes a computational framework designed for high-throughput calculations and analyses: the Simulated Materials Ecosystem (Simmate). This software allows users to explore various crystal databases, predict new materials, quickly calculate properties, and share results across analyses. We illustrate Simmate’s functionality through the exploration of an exotic class of materials known as electrides, which have gained considerable attention in recent literature thanks to their applications as superconductors, co-catalysts, and solid-state dopants. This diverse set of applications derives from an electride’s defining property: bare electrons that exist at isolated lattice sites. “Electride electrons” effectively serve as anions, which led us to propose the direct substitution of electrides with other -1 species, namely, halides (F-, Cl-, Br-, I-). Herein, we use Simmate to explore electride-halide systems, understand transitions between such materials, and predict new systems with enhanced material properties. This work ultimately led to the identification of novel ionic conductors, metastable electrides, and new search algorithms for discovering more of the same. Our framework and high-throughput search strategies are highly generalizable and will accelerate the exploration of many different materials beyond our illustrative examples with electride-halide material systems.Doctor of Philosoph