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Non-aqueous Li-air or Li-O2 cells show considerable promise as a very high energy density battery couple. Such cells, however, show sudden death at capacities far below their theoretical capacity and this, among other problems, limits their practicality. In this paper, we show that this sudden death arises from limited charge transport through the growing Li2O2 film to the Li2O2-electrolyte interface, and this limitation defines a critical film thickness, above which it is not possible to support electrochemistry at the Li2O2-electrolyte interface. We report both electrochemical experiments using a reversible internal redox couple and a first principles metal-insulator-metal charge transport model to probe the electrical conductivity through Li2O2 films produced during Li-O2 discharge. Both experiment and theory show a 'sudden death' in charge transport when film thickness is ∼5 to 10 nm. The theoretical model shows that this occurs when the tunneling current through the film can no longer support the electrochemical current. Thus, engineering charge transport through Li2O2 is a serious challenge if Li-O2 batteries are ever to reach their potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Versatile Bro\nsted-Evans-Polanyi (BEP) relations are found from density functional theory for a wide range of transition metal oxides including rutiles and perovskites. For oxides, the relation depends on the type of oxide, the active site, and the dissociating molecule. The slope of the BEP relation is strongly coupled to the adsorbate geometry in the transition state. If it is final state-like the dissociative chemisorption energy can be considered as a descriptor for the dissociation. If it is initial state-like, on the other hand, the dissociative chemisorption energy is not suitable as descriptor for the dissociation. Dissociation of molecules with strong intramolecular bonds belong to the former and molecules with weak intramolecular bonds to the latter group. We show, for the prototype system La-perovskites, that there is a 'cyclic' behavior in the transition state characteristics upon change of the active transition metal of the oxide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new approximate method is developed for the calculation of the adiabatic potential energy surface for a molecule outside a metal surface. It is computationally fast enough to be useful in simulations of the dynamics of adsorbing and desorbing molecules. The method is characterized by the fact that the functional form of the total energy expression is derived from density functional theory, that each of the terms entering can be given a precise physical interpretation, and that most of the parameters entering can be calculated, within the local density approximation. The method is explicitly derived for H2 outside metal surfaces and the applicability is illustrated for H2 adsorbing on various Cu and Ni surfaces. Although very approximate, the calculated potentials seem to include a number of features observed experimentally: Ni is more active in dissociating H2 than Cu, and open surfaces are more active than close-packed ones. Moreover, the method is simple enough that one can contemplate studying variations in dissociation pathways over the surface unit cell. For the Cu surfaces these variations are substantial accounting for at least part of the variation of the sticking coefficient with the kinetic energy of the incoming molecule. Because of the transparent nature of the energy expression, all these trends can be given a simple physical interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a density functional theory study of the first step of CH4 adsorption on the Ni(111) surface, dissociation into adsorbed CH3 and H. The rupture of the C–H bond occurs preferentially on top of a Ni atom, with a dissociation barrier of about 100 kJ/mol (including zero point corrections). The transition state involves considerable internal excitation of the molecule. The active C–H bond is both stretched to 1.6 Å and tilted relative to the methyl group. A normal mode analysis shows that the reaction coordinate is mainly a C–H stretch, while the orientation of the C–H bond relative to the surface is responsible for the highest real mode. Alloying the surface with gold also affects the reactivity of the Ni atoms on adjacent surface sites. The dissociation barrier is increased by 16 and 38 kJ/mol for a Ni atom with one or two gold neighbors, respectively. We attribute these changes to a shift in the local density of d states at the nickel atoms in the neighborhood of gold. © 1996 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantum wave packet calculation for the activated dissociative adsorption of H2 is presented. Restricting the motion of the molecule to lie within a plane normal to the surface we have treated all four molecular degrees of freedom exactly. We compare results obtained using two-, three-, and four-dimensional simulations on the same potential and show that by restricting the molecular orientation, important dynamical effects are lost. The potential employed in the calculations has been obtained using the effective medium approximation. In the simulations it has been possible to treat dissociation, rotations and diffraction on an equal footing. By including a rotational degree of freedom, it is seen that strong orientational effects occur near to the transition state and result in an anisotropic selectivity in the dissociation. By examining the state-to-state scattering probabilities, it is possible to use the nonreacting (scattered) fraction to provide information on the reactive potential energy surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which investigated the binding of multiple deuterium atoms to vacancies in iron, by use of ion-beam techniques and the effective-medium scheme. Transport formation; Discussion on the effective-medium theory; Experimental results.

Presents an experimental investigation of ion-implanted hydrogen in aluminum. Measurement of the binding of the hydrogen to irradiation defects; Discussion on whether trapping occurs either within the surface oxide or at its interface with the metal; Hydrogen trapping in the presence of the helium (He) bubbles which usually form in metals during He implantation.

We develop a density functional theory model for the electrochemical growth and dissolution of Li2O2 on various facets, terminations, and sites (terrace, steps, and kinks) of a Li2O2 surface. We argue that this is a reasonable model to describe discharge and charge of Li-O2 batteries over most of the discharge-charge cycle. Because non-stoichiometric surfaces are potential dependent and since the potential varies during discharge and charge, we study the thermodynamic stability of facets, terminations, and steps as a function of potential. This suggests that different facets, terminations, and sites may dominate in charge relative to those for discharge. We find very low thermodynamic overpotentials (<0.2 V) for both discharge and charge at many sites on the facets studied. These low thermodynamic overpotentials for both discharge and charge are in very good agreement with the low kinetic overpotentials observed in recent experiments. However, there are other predicted paths for discharge/charge that have higher overpotentials, so the phase space available for the electrochemistry opens up with overpotential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]