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The chemistry at the interface between electrolyte and electrode plays a critical role in determining battery performance. Here, the authors show that a NaBr enriched solid–electrolyte interphase can lower the surface diffusion barrier for sodium ions, enabling stable electrodeposition.

Density-functional theory (DFT) has revolutionized computational prediction of atomic-scale properties from first principles in physics, chemistry and materials science. Continuing development of new methods is necessary for accurate predictions of new classes of materials and properties, and for connecting to nano- and mesoscale properties using coarse-grained theories. JDFTx is a fully-featured open-source electronic DFT software designed specifically to facilitate rapid development of new theories, models and algorithms. Using an algebraic formulation as an abstraction layer, compact C++11 code automatically performs well on diverse hardware including GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). This code hosts the development of joint density-functional theory (JDFT) that combines electronic DFT with classical DFT and continuum models of liquids for first-principles calculations of solvated and electrochemical systems. In addition, the modular nature of the code makes it easy to extend and interface with, facilitating the development of multi-scale toolkits that connect to ab initio calculations, e.g. photo-excited carrier dynamics combining electron and phonon calculations with electromagnetic simulations. Keywords: Density functional theory, Electronic structure, Solvation, Electrochemistry, Light-matter interactions

Implicit electron-density solvation models offer a computationally efficient solution to the problem of calculating thermodynamic quantities of solvated systems from first-principles quantum mechanics. However, despite much recent interest in such models, to date the applicability of such models in the plane-wave context to non-aqueous solvents has been limited because the determination of the model parameters requires fitting to a large database of experimental solvation energies for each new solvent considered. This work presents a simple approach to quickly find approximations to the non-electrostatic contributions to the solvation energy, allowing for development of new iso-density models for a large class of protic and aprotic solvents from only simple, single-molecule ab initio calculations and readily available bulk thermodynamic data. Finally, to illustrate the capabilities of the resulting theory, we also calculate the surface solvation energies of crystalline LiF in various different non-aqueous solvents, and discuss the observed trends and their relevance to lithium battery technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]