Sundararaman, Ravishankar and Goddard, William A., III and Arias, Tomas A. (2017) Grand canonical electronic density-functional theory: Algorithms and applications to electrochemistry. Journal of Chemical Physics, 146 (11). Art. No. 114104. ISSN 0021-9606. doi:10.1063/1.4978411. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20170316-155448902
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Abstract
First-principles calculations combining density-functional theory and continuum solvation models enable realistic theoretical modeling and design of electrochemical systems. When a reaction proceeds in such systems, the number of electrons in the portion of the system treated quantum mechanically changes continuously, with a balancing charge appearing in the continuum electrolyte. A grand-canonical ensemble of electrons at a chemical potential set by the electrode potential is therefore the ideal description of such systems that directly mimics the experimental condition. We present two distinct algorithms: a self-consistent field method and a direct variational free energy minimization method using auxiliary Hamiltonians (GC-AuxH), to solve the Kohn-Sham equations of electronic density-functional theory directly in the grand canonical ensemble at fixed potential. Both methods substantially improve performance compared to a sequence of conventional fixed-number calculations targeting the desired potential, with the GC-AuxH method additionally exhibiting reliable and smooth exponential convergence of the grand free energy. Finally, we apply grand-canonical density-functional theory to the under-potential deposition of copper on platinum from chloride-containing electrolytes and show that chloride desorption, not partial copper monolayer formation, is responsible for the second voltammetric peak.
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Additional Information: | © 2017 AIP Publishing LLC. (Received 16 January 2017; accepted 27 February 2017; published online 16 March 2017) R.S. and W.A.G. acknowledge support from the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, supported through the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Award No. DE-SC0004993. R.S. and T.A.A. acknowledge support from the Energy Materials Center at Cornell (EMC^2), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0001086. Calculations in this work used the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We thank Kendra Letchworth-Weaver, Kathleen Schwarz, Yuan Ping, Hai Xiao, Tao Cheng, Robert J. Nielsen, and Jason Goodpaster for insightful discussions. | |||||||||
Group: | JCAP | |||||||||
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Issue or Number: | 11 | |||||||||
DOI: | 10.1063/1.4978411 | |||||||||
Record Number: | CaltechAUTHORS:20170316-155448902 | |||||||||
Persistent URL: | https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20170316-155448902 | |||||||||
Usage Policy: | No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. | |||||||||
ID Code: | 75188 | |||||||||
Collection: | CaltechAUTHORS | |||||||||
Deposited By: | George Porter | |||||||||
Deposited On: | 17 Mar 2017 14:59 | |||||||||
Last Modified: | 15 Nov 2021 16:31 |
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