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In the present work, we conduct large-scale orbital-free DFT calculations to study the energetics of vacancy clustering in aluminum from electronic structure calculations. The simulation domains considered in this study are as large as those containing a million atoms to accurately account for both the electronic structure and long-ranged elastic fields. Our results indicate that vacancy clustering is an energetically favorable mechanisms with positive binding energies for a range of vacancy clusters considered in the present study. In particular, the $19$ vacancy hexagonal cluster lying in $\{111\}$ plane has a very large binding energy with the relaxed atomic structure representative of a prismatic dislocation loop. This suggests that vacancy prismatic loops as small as those formed from 19 vacancies are stable, thus providing insights into the nucleation sizes of these defects in aluminum.

We employed a real-space formulation of orbital-free density functional theory using finite-element basis to study the defect-core and energetics of an edge dislocation in Aluminum. Our study shows that the core-size of a perfect edge dislocation is around ten times the magnitude of the Burgers vector. This finding is contrary to the widely accepted notion that continuum descriptions of dislocation energetics are accurate beyond 1-3 Burgers vector from the dislocation line. Consistent with prior electronic-structure studies, we find that the perfect edge dislocation dissociates into two Shockley partials with a partial separation distance of 12.8 $\AA$. Interestingly, our study revealed a significant influence of macroscopic deformations on the core-energy of Shockley partials. We show that this dependence of the core-energy on macroscopic deformations results in an additional force on dislocations, beyond the Peach-Koehler force, that is proportional to strain gradients. Further, we demonstrate that this force from core-effects can be significant and can play an important role in governing the dislocation behavior in regions of inhomogeneous deformations., Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures

Li-O2 batteries have traditionally used carbon based electrodes (graphite, buckypaper) as the cathode of choice due toits good electrical conductivity, stability against non-aqueous electrolytes like dimethoxyethane (DME) and ease ofhandling. But, the carbon cathode also leads to formation of carbonate by-products that increase overpotentials duringcharging leading to degradation of the cathode and reduction of cyclability. Recent investigations have focused on using metal-oxides like SnO2, TiO2 as viable cathodes-alternatives in Li-O2 systems. In this paper, we investigate transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) as cathodes with focus on the interface between the TCO surfaces and the discharge product, Li2O2, in the Li-O2 battery using first principles computations.

Li-O2 batteries have traditionally used carbon based electrodes (graphite, buckypaper) as the cathode of choice due to its good electrical conductivity, stability against non-aqueous electrolytes like Dimethyl ether (DME) and ease of handling. But, the carbon cathode also leads to formation of carbonate by-products that increase overpotentials during charging leading to degradation of cathode and reduction of cyclability. In this work, we investigate some of the well-known oxides as cathodes with focus on the interface between the oxide surfaces and the discharge product: Li2O2, in the Li-O2 battery using first principles computations. Our results show that attention must be paid on choosing the appropriate surface of the oxides. We extend the analysis to suggest other possible oxide chemistries that should be investigated as cathodes in Li-O2 batteries.