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The oxygen adsorption and dissociation on pristine silicene surface are studied by use of first-principles in this letter. The oxygen adsorption and dissociation on pristine silicene surface are studied by use of first-principles in this letter. It is found that the pristine silicene is not stable in air because the oxygen molecule can be easily adsorbed and dissociated into two O atoms without overcoming any energy barrier on pristine silicene surface. In addition, dissociated oxygen atoms are relatively difficult to migrate on or desorbed from pristine silicene surface, leading to poor mobility of oxygen atom. As a result, silicene would be changed into Si-O compounds in air. The work will be helpful to reveal the detail of the interaction between oxygen molecules and pristine silicene surface, especially helpful to understand the stability of silicene in air.

Structural and electronic properties of the lambda-MnO2(001) surface are investigated applying density functional theory approach. The calculations show that all Mn ions at unreconstructed smooth surface preserve the +4 oxidation state observed in the bulk. Upon the lambda-MnO2(001) reconstruction, one fourth of Mn ions at the surface undergo a change of the oxidation state from +4 to +3, although the reconstruction does not change the Mn coordination number with oxygen. This is accompanied with the filling of initially empty 3d(z2) states localized on cations with one electron denoted by two neighboring O atoms. Although the reconstruction leads to an energy gain of 0.04 eV per surface unit cell, it is not a spontaneous process since it proceeds with an activation energy of 0.12 eV. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3509401]

LiMn2O4 is one of the important cathode material for rechargeable lithium batteries. Standard ab initio studies within local density approximation (LDA) and generalized gradient approximation (GGA) are not able to reproduce the intrinsic insulating electronic structure and Jahn-Teller-type local atomic distortion of LiMn2O4. In the present work, GGA+U method is shown to be able to localize electrons to Mn 3d(z2) orbits in the majority spin channel, and open a gap of about 0.5 eV between the Mn 3d(z2) and Mn 3d(x2-y2). Results from GGA+U calculation showed that Mn ions are in the mixed valence state of Mn3+ and Mn4+. This is in good agreements with experimental observations and different to Mn3.5+ obtained from standard GGA calculations. While Jahn-Teller distortion is not observed in Mn4+O6 octahedra, it is clearly seen in Mn3+O6 octahedra, in which Mn-O bond lengths along the z-axis direction are obviously elongated. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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