skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: High-Throughput Computational Screening of Perovskites for Thermochemical Water Splitting Applications

Journal Article · · Chemistry of Materials

The use of hydrogen as fuel is a promising avenue to aid in the reduction of greenhouse effect gases released in the atmosphere. In this work, we present a high-throughput density functional theory (HT-DFT) study of 5,329 cubic and distorted perovskite ABO3 compounds to screen for thermodynamically favorable two-step thermochemical water splitting (TWS) materials. From a data set of more than 11,000 calculations, we screened materials based on the following: (a) thermodynamic stability and (b) oxygen vacancy formation energy that allow favorable TWS. From our screening strategy, we identify 139 materials as potential new candidates for TWS application. Several of these compounds, such as CeCoO3 and BiVO3, have not been experimentally explored yet for TWS and present promising avenues for further research. We show that taking into consideration all phases present in the A–B–O ternary phase, as opposed to only calculating the formation energy of a compound, is crucial to assess correctly the stability of a compound as it reduces the number of potential candidates from 5,329 to 383. Finally, our large data set of compounds containing stabilites, oxidation states, and ionic sizes allowed us to revisit the structural maps for perovskites by showing stable and unstable compounds simultaneously.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Electrical Energy Storage (CEES)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1388303
Journal Information:
Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 16; Related Information: CEES partners with Argonne National Laboratory (lead); University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Northwest University; ISSN 0897-4756
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 169 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (85)

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Computational high-throughput screening of electrocatalytic materials for hydrogen evolution journal October 2006
Structural phase transitions of the metal oxide perovskites SrTiO 3 , LaAlO 3 , and LaTiO 3 studied with a screened hybrid functional journal January 2013
Low-Energy Polymeric Phases of Alanates journal March 2013
Revised effective ionic radii and systematic studies of interatomic distances in halides and chalcogenides journal September 1976
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999
Electron-energy-loss spectra and the structural stability of nickel oxide: An LSDA+U study journal January 1998
Fast vacancy-mediated oxygen ion incorporation across the ceria–gas electrochemical interface journal July 2014
Formability of ABO3 perovskites journal June 2004
Fuel cell systems and system modeling and analysis perspectives for fuel cell development journal June 2002
New developments in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD): accessibility in support of materials research and design journal May 2002
Solid oxide fuel cells for stationary, mobile, and military applications journal December 2002
Predicting Crystal Structures with Data Mining of Quantum Calculations journal September 2003
Materials-Related Aspects of Thermochemical Water and Carbon Dioxide Splitting: A Review journal October 2012
Correcting density functional theory for accurate predictions of compound enthalpies of formation: Fitted elemental-phase reference energies journal March 2012
The Major Ternary Structural Families book January 1974
Syngas production by simultaneous splitting of H2O and CO 2 via ceria redox reactions in a high-temperature solar reactor journal January 2012
High-temperature solar chemistry for converting solar heat to chemical fuels journal January 2003
Prediction of Formability in Perovskite-Type Oxides~!2008-08-05~!2008-10-08~!2008-12-05~! journal December 2008
Nonstoichiometry and defect structure of the perovskite-type oxides La1−xSrxFeO3−° journal July 1985
Oxygen vacancy formation energy in Pd-doped ceria: A DFT+U study journal August 2007
New cubic perovskites for one- and two-photon water splitting using the computational materials repository journal January 2012
Structural stability and formability of AB O 3 -type perovskite compounds journal November 2007
Life cycle assessment of hydrogen fuel production processes journal November 2004
The Open Quantum Materials Database (OQMD): assessing the accuracy of DFT formation energies journal December 2015
Nonstoichiometry of the perovskite-type oxides La1−xSrxCoO3−δ journal May 1989
Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set journal July 1996
Review: Photochemical and Thermochemical Production of Solar Fuels from H 2 O and CO 2 Using Metal Oxide Catalysts journal June 2012
Solar hydrogen production via a two-step water-splitting thermochemical cycle based on Zn/ZnO redox reactions journal June 2002
Intrinsic structural distortion and superexchange interaction in the orthorhombic rare-earth perovskites R CrO 3 journal June 2010
Thermochemical hydrogen production from a two-step solar-driven water-splitting cycle based on cerium oxides journal December 2006
Tunable Oxygen Vacancy Formation Energetics in the Complex Perovskite Oxide Sr x La 1– x Mn y Al 1– y O 3 journal November 2014
Concentrating solar thermal power and thermochemical fuels journal January 2012
The Computational Materials Repository journal November 2012
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Hydrogen production from water utilizing solar heat at high temperatures journal January 1977
Classification of perovskite and other ABO3-type compounds journal February 1957
Decomposition of water by cerium oxide of δ-phase journal May 1985
Toward Computational Materials Design: The Impact of Density Functional Theory on Materials Research journal September 2006
The perovskite structure—a review of its role in ceramic science and technology journal November 2000
Identification of cathode materials for lithium batteries guided by first-principles calculations journal April 1998
Screening of water-splitting thermochemical cycles potentially attractive for hydrogen production by concentrated solar energy journal November 2006
Sr- and Mn-doped LaAlO3−δ for solar thermochemical H2 and CO production journal January 2013
Structural Predictions in the ABO3 Phase Diagram journal April 1994
A high-throughput infrastructure for density functional theory calculations journal June 2011
La1−xSrxMO3 (M = Mn, Fe) perovskites as materials for thermochemical hydrogen production in conventional and membrane reactors journal September 2009
Materials and concepts for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) in stationary and mobile applications journal March 2004
Review of the Two-Step H2O/CO2-Splitting Solar Thermochemical Cycle Based on Zn/ZnO Redox Reactions journal November 2010
High-Flux Solar-Driven Thermochemical Dissociation of CO2 and H2O Using Nonstoichiometric Ceria journal December 2010
Stability and electronic properties of new inorganic perovskites from high-throughput ab initio calculations journal January 2016
Python Materials Genomics (pymatgen): A robust, open-source python library for materials analysis journal February 2013
Effective ionic radii in oxides and fluorides journal May 1969
Atom sizes and bond lengths in molecules and crystals journal April 1991
Nonstoichiometric Perovskite Oxides for Solar Thermochemical H2 and CO Production journal January 2014
The inorganic crystal structure data base journal May 1983
Defect Chemistry of (La,Sr)MnO3 journal January 1998
First-Principles Determination of Multicomponent Hydride Phase Diagrams: Application to the Li-Mg-N-H System journal September 2007
Investigation of reactive cerium-based oxides for H2 production by thermochemical two-step water-splitting journal April 2010
Octahedral Tilting in Perovskites. I. Geometrical Considerations journal February 1997
Lanthanum–Strontium–Manganese Perovskites as Redox Materials for Solar Thermochemical Splitting of H 2 O and CO 2 journal March 2013
Erratum: First-principles thermodynamic framework for the evaluation of thermochemical H 2 O- or CO 2 -splitting materials [Phys. Rev. B 80 , 245119 (2009)] journal June 2011
Computational screening of perovskite metal oxides for optimal solar light capture journal January 2012
Designing rules and probabilistic weighting for fast materials discovery in the Perovskite structure journal May 2014
Comparison of thermochemical, electrolytic, photoelectrolytic and photochemical solar-to-hydrogen production technologies journal November 2012
Hydrogen-storage materials for mobile applications journal November 2001
Universal Octahedral-Site Distortion in Orthorhombic Perovskite Oxides journal February 2005
Investigation of Perovskite Structures as Oxygen-Exchange Redox Materials for Hydrogen Production from Thermochemical Two-Step Water-Splitting Cycles journal June 2014
Catalytic investigation of ceria-zirconia solid solutions for solar hydrogen production journal April 2011
Screening for high-performance piezoelectrics using high-throughput density functional theory journal July 2011
Kinetics and Thermodynamics of H 2 O Dissociation on Reduced CeO 2 (111) journal November 2014
CO2 and H2O reduction by solar thermochemical looping using SnO2/SnO redox reactions: Thermogravimetric analysis journal May 2012
Oxidation-reduction behavior of undoped and Sr-doped LaMnO3 nonstoichiometry and defect structure journal November 1989
Effects of Concentration, Crystal Structure, Magnetism, and Electronic Structure Method on First-Principles Oxygen Vacancy Formation Energy Trends in Perovskites journal November 2014
Die Gesetze der Krystallochemie journal May 1926
The quickhull algorithm for convex hulls journal December 1996
Novel two-step SnO2/SnO water-splitting cycle for solar thermochemical production of hydrogen journal November 2008
Materials Design and Discovery with High-Throughput Density Functional Theory: The Open Quantum Materials Database (OQMD) journal September 2013
AFLOW: An automatic framework for high-throughput materials discovery journal June 2012
AFLOWLIB.ORG: A distributed materials properties repository from high-throughput ab initio calculations journal June 2012
Perovskite Oxide for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells book January 2009
Oxidation energies of transition metal oxides within the GGA + U framework journal May 2006
Ordering of oxygen vacancies and excess charge localization in bulk ceria: A DFT + U study journal September 2014
Ab initio energetics of La B O 3 ( 001 ) ( B = Mn , Fe, Co, and Ni) for solid oxide fuel cell cathodes journal December 2009
The properties of hydrogen as fuel tomorrow in sustainable energy system for a cleaner planet journal July 2005
Defect thermodynamics and electrical properties of nanocrystalline oxides: pure and doped CeO2 journal January 1997

Cited By (25)

Roles of Bulk and Surface Chemistry in the Oxygen Exchange Kinetics and Related Properties of Mixed Conducting Perovskite Oxide Electrodes journal October 2016
High-throughput DFT calculations of formation energy, stability and oxygen vacancy formation energy of ABO3 perovskites journal October 2017
Semiempirical configuration interaction calculations for ru-centered dyes*: Semiempirical Configuration Interaction Calculations journal February 2018
Experimental search for high-temperature ferroelectric perovskites guided by two-step machine learning journal April 2018
Predictions of new AB O 3 perovskite compounds by combining machine learning and density functional theory journal April 2018
Effects of composition, crystal structure, and surface orientation on band alignment of divalent metal oxides: A first-principles study journal December 2018
Evaluating transition-metal oxides within DFT-SCAN and SCAN+U frameworks for solar thermochemical applications text January 2018
Inverse design in search of materials with target functionalities journal March 2018
Machine learning for composite materials journal March 2019
Network analysis of synthesizable materials discovery journal May 2019
Machine learning in materials informatics: recent applications and prospects journal December 2017
Machine learning properties of binary wurtzite superlattices journal January 2018
The geometric blueprint of perovskites journal May 2018
Double perovskites as p-type conducting transparent semiconductors: a high-throughput search journal January 2019
A General Two‐Step Strategy–Based High‐Throughput Screening of Single Atom Catalysts for Nitrogen Fixation journal December 2018
Non-Stoichiometric Redox Active Perovskite Materials for Solar Thermochemical Fuel Production: A Review journal December 2018
Network analysis of synthesizable materials discovery text January 2018
Sr- and Co-doped LaGaO 3−δ with high O 2 and H 2 yields in solar thermochemical water splitting journal January 2019
Principles of Computational Simulations Devices and Characterization of Nanoelectronic Materials book June 2019
In- and Ga-based inorganic double perovskites with direct bandgaps for photovoltaic applications journal January 2017
The Geometric Blueprint of Perovskites text January 2018
Communication: The electronic entropy of charged defect formation and its impact on thermochemical redox cycles journal February 2018
Redox Behavior of Solid Solutions in the SrFe 1-x Cu x O 3-δ System for Application in Thermochemical Oxygen Storage and Air Separation journal December 2018
Material Discovery and Design Principles for Stable, High Activity Perovskite Cathodes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells journal January 2018
Novel Perovskite Materials for Thermal Water Splitting at Moderate Temperature journal August 2019