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The process by which organic matter decomposes deep underground to form petroleum and its underlying kerogen matrix has so far remained a no man's land to theoreticians, largely because of the geological (Myears) timescale associated with the process. Using reactive molecular dynamics and an accelerated simulation framework, the replica exchange molecular dynamics method, we simulate the full transformation of cellulose into kerogen and its associated fluid phase under prevailing geological conditions. We observe in sequence the fragmentation of the cellulose crystal and production of water, the development of an unsaturated aliphatic macromolecular phase and its aromatization. The composition of the solid residue along the maturation pathway strictly follows what is observed for natural type III kerogen and for artificially matured samples under confined conditions. After expulsion of the fluid phase, the obtained microporous kerogen possesses the structure, texture, density, porosity and stiffness observed for mature type III kerogen and a microporous carbon obtained by saccharose pyrolysis at low temperature. As expected for this variety of precursor, the main resulting hydrocarbon is methane. The present work thus demonstrates that molecular simulations can now be used to assess, almost quantitatively, such complex chemical processes as petrogenesis in fossil reservoirs and, more generally, the possible conversion of any natural product into bio-sourced materials and/or fuel.

The short-range structure of liquid carbon dioxide is investigated at pressures (P) up to 10 GPa and temperatures (T) from 300 to 709 K by means of x-ray diffraction experiments in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) and classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The molecular x-ray structure factor could be measured up to 90 nm(-1) thanks to the use of a multichannel collimator which filters out the large x-ray scattered signal from the diamond anvils. The experimental data show that the short-range structure of fluid CO2 is anisotropic and continuously changes from a low density to a high density form. The MD simulations are used to extract a detailed three-dimensional analysis of the short-range structure over the same P-T range as the experiment. This reveals that upon compression, a fraction of the molecules in the first-neighbor shell change orientation from the (distorted) T shape to the slipped parallel configuration, accounting for the observed structural changes. The local arrangement is found similar to that of the Pa (3) over bar solid at low density and to that of the Cmca crystal at high density. The comparison with other simple quadrupolar liquids, either diatomic (I-2) or triatomic (CS2), suggests that this structural evolution with density is a general one for these systems., Funding Agencies|ESRF [HD-463]; Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR 13-BS04-0015]; Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensif French National Supercomputing Facility [x2013091387]

We develop a method to accurately and efficiently determine the vibrational free energy as a function of temperature and volume for substitutional alloys from first principles. Taking Ti1-xAlxN alloy as a model system, we calculate the isostructural phase diagram by finding the global minimum of the free energy corresponding to the true equilibrium state of the system. We demonstrate that the vibrational contribution including anharmonicity and temperature dependence of the mixing enthalpy have a decisive impact on the calculated phase diagram of a Ti1-xAlxN alloy, lowering the maximum temperature for the miscibility gap from 6560 to 2860 K. Our local chemical composition measurements on thermally aged Ti0.5Al0.5N alloys agree with the calculated phase diagram., Funding Agencies|Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research Programs (Stiftelsen for Strategisk Forskning) [SRL10-0026, RMA08-0069]; FUNCASE; Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet) [2012-4401, 621-2011-4426, 2015-04391, 637-2013-7296, 621-2011-4417, 330-2014-6336]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [2009 00971]; Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova) through the M-ERA.net project MC2; SECO Tools AB; Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions, Cofund [INCA 600398]; Erasmus Mundus Joint European Doctoral Programme DocMASE; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation [K2-2016-013]; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Federal State Government of Saarland [INST 256/298-1 FUGG]

Wurtzite aluminium nitride is a technologically important wide band gap semiconductor with an unusually high thermal conductivity, used in optical applications and as a heatsink substrate. Many of its properties depend on an accurate description of its lattice dynamics, which have thus far only been captured in the quasiharmonic approximation. In this work, we demonstrate that anharmonicity has a considerable impact on its phase stability and transport properties, since anharmonicity is much stronger in the rocksalt phase. We compute a pressure-temperature phase diagram of AlN, demonstrating that the rocksalt phase is stabilised by increasing temperature, with respect to the wurtzite phase. We demonstrate that including anharmonicity, we can recover the thermal conductivity of the wurtzite phase (320 Wm−1K−1 under ambient conditions), and compute the hitherto unknown thermal conductivity of the rocksalt phase (96 Wm−1K−1). We also show that the electronic band gap decreases with temperature. These findings provide further evidence that anharmonic effects cannot be ignored in high temperature applications., Funding agencies; Swedish Research Council (VR programs) [2015-04391, 621-2012-4401]; Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF program) [SRL10-0026]; VINNOVA [M-Era.net Project] [2013-02355 (MC2)]; Swedish Research Council VR program [637-2013-7296]; Swedish Foundati

We review the current state of research on glasses, discussing the theoretical background and computational models employed to describe them. This article focuses on the use of the potential energy landscape (PEL) paradigm to account for the phenomenology of glassy systems, and the way in which it can be applied in simulations and the interpretation of their results. This article provides a broad overview of the rich phenomenology of glasses, followed by a summary of the theoretical frameworks developed to describe this phenomonology. We discuss the background of the PEL in detail, the onerous task of how to generate computer models of glasses, various methods of analysing numerical simulations, and the literature on the most commonly used model systems. Finally, we tackle the problem of how to distinguish a good glass former from a good crystal former from an analysis of the PEL. In summarising the state of the potential energy landscape picture, we develop the foundations for new theoretical methods that allow the ab initio prediction of the glass- forming ability of new materials by analysis of the PEL., Funding Agencies|Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) synergy program FUN-CASE; Swedish Research Council (VR) [621-2011-4417]; SSF program SRL [10-0026]; VR (grant) [621-2011-4426]; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation ( [14.Y26.31.0005]; Tomsk State University Academic DI Mendeleev Fund Program [8.1.18.2015]

We have developed a method to accurately and efficiently determine the vibrational free energy as a function of temperature and pressure for substitutional alloys from first principles. Taking the example of the technologically important hard coating alloy Ti1-xAlxN as an example, we investigate the effect on the vibrational free energy of substituting Ti for other group IV elements. By constructing the phase diagrams for these three alloys, we show why Zr1-xAlxN and Hf1-xAlxN are so difficult to experimentally synthesise in a metastable solid solution: both have solubility regions that span only a small low-AlN concentration range at temperatures above 1500 K. Moreover, Hf1-xAlxN is dynamically unstable at low temperatures and across most of the concentration range. We also show the chemical and thermal expansion effects dominate mass disorder in the Gibbs free energy of mixing.

The richness of the phase diagram of water reduces drastically at very high pressures where only two molecular phases, proton-disordered ice VII and proton-ordered ice VIII, are known. Both phases transform to the centered hydrogen bond atomic phase ice X above about 60 GPa, i.e., at pressures experienced in the interior of large ice bodies in the universe, such as Saturn and Neptune, where nonmolecular ice is thought to be the most abundant phase of water. In this work, we investigate, by Raman spectroscopy up to megabar pressures and ab initio simulations, how the transformation of ice VII in ice X is affected by the presence of salt inclusions in the ice lattice. Considerable amounts of salt can be included in ice VII structure under pressure via rock-ice interaction at depth and processes occurring during planetary accretion. Our study reveals that the presence of salt hinders proton order and hydrogen bond symmetrization, and pushes ice VII to ice X transformation to higher and higher pressures as the concentration of salt is increased., Funding Agencies|Swiss National Science Foundation through FNS Grant [200021-149847]; French state funds [ANR-13-IS04-0006-01]; Investissements dAvenir programme [ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02]; Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensif French National Supercomputing Facility [x2013091387]