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

Title: A Computational Framework to Accelerate the Discovery of Perovskites for Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen Production: Identification of Gd Perovskite Oxide Redox Mediators

Journal Article · · Advanced Functional Materials

Abstract A high‐throughput computational framework to identify novel multinary perovskite redox mediators is presented, and this framework is applied to discover the Gd‐containing perovskite oxide compositions Gd 2 BB′O 6, GdA′B 2 O 6 , and GdA′BB′O 6 that split water. The computational scheme uses a sequence of empirical approaches to evaluate the stabilities, electronic properties, and oxygen vacancy thermodynamics of these materials, including contributions to the enthalpies and entropies of reduction, Δ H TR and Δ S TR . This scheme uses the machine‐learned descriptor τ to identify compositions that are likely stable as perovskites, the bond valence method to estimate the magnitude and phase of BO 6 octahedral tilting and provide accurate initial estimates of perovskite geometries, and density functional theory including magnetic‐ and defect‐sampling to predict STCH‐relevant properties. Eighty‐three promising STCH candidate perovskite oxides down‐selected from 4392 Gd‐containing compositions are reported, three of which are referred to experimental collaborators for characterization and exhibit STCH activity. The results demonstrate that the high‐throughput computational scheme described herein—which is used to evaluate Gd‐containing compositions but can be applied to any multinary perovskite oxide compositional space(s) of interest—accelerates the discovery of novel STCH active redox mediators with reasonable computational expense.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO); National Science Foundation (NSF); University of Colorado; USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0008088; CHEM-1800592; CBET-2016225; P200A180012
OSTI ID:
1976187
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1856536
Journal Information:
Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 32, Issue 25; ISSN 1616-301X
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (61)

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Outstanding Properties and Performance of CaTi0.5Mn0.5O3–δ for Solar-Driven Thermochemical Hydrogen Production journal February 2021
Applications and limitations of two step metal oxide thermochemical redox cycles; a review journal January 2017
Inorganic Halide Double Perovskites with Optoelectronic Properties Modulated by Sublattice Mixing journal February 2020
Nonstoichiometric Perovskite Oxides for Solar Thermochemical H2 and CO Production journal January 2014
Revised effective ionic radii and systematic studies of interatomic distances in halides and chalcogenides journal September 1976
Polymorphous nature of cubic halide perovskites journal April 2020
Efficient Generation of H2 by Splitting Water with an Isothermal Redox Cycle journal August 2013
Crystal structure and magnetic ordering of the LaCo 1− x Fe x O 3 system journal November 2005
FeO 6 Octahedral Distortion Activates Lattice Oxygen in Perovskite Ferrite for Methane Partial Oxidation Coupled with CO 2 Splitting journal June 2020
Exploring Ca–Ce–M–O (M = 3d Transition Metal) Oxide Perovskites for Solar Thermochemical Applications journal November 2020
Norm-conserving and ultrasoft pseudopotentials for first-row and transition elements journal October 1994
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999
Intrinsic Material Properties Dictating Oxygen Vacancy Formation Energetics in Metal Oxides journal May 2015
High-throughput DFT calculations of formation energy, stability and oxygen vacancy formation energy of ABO3 perovskites journal October 2017
Lanthanum–Strontium–Manganese Perovskites as Redox Materials for Solar Thermochemical Splitting of H 2 O and CO 2 journal March 2013
First-principles thermodynamic framework for the evaluation of thermochemical H 2 O - or CO 2 -splitting materials journal December 2009
Low-temperature, manganese oxide-based, thermochemical water splitting cycle journal May 2012
Perovskite oxides – a review on a versatile material class for solar-to-fuel conversion processes journal January 2017
Origin of ferroelectricity in perovskite oxides journal July 1992
Favorable Redox Thermodynamics of SrTi 0.5 Mn 0.5 O 3−δ in Solar Thermochemical Water Splitting journal October 2020
Phase Identification of the Layered Perovskite Ce x Sr 2– x MnO 4 and Application for Solar Thermochemical Water Splitting journal May 2019
Giant onsite electronic entropy enhances the performance of ceria for water splitting journal August 2017
Ab initiomolecular dynamics for liquid metals journal January 1993
Towards Solar Fuels from Water and CO 2 journal February 2010
Correcting density functional theory for accurate predictions of compound enthalpies of formation: Fitted elemental-phase reference energies journal March 2012
CeTi 2 O 6 —A Promising Oxide for Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen Production journal April 2020
Solar thermochemical splitting of water to generate hydrogen journal May 2017
BaCe 0.25 Mn 0.75 O 3−δ —a promising perovskite-type oxide for solar thermochemical hydrogen production journal January 2018
Generation of low-symmetry perovskite structures for ab initio computation journal May 2020
Accuracy of density functional theory in predicting formation energies of ternary oxides from binary oxides and its implication on phase stability journal April 2012
Prediction of the crystal structures of perovskites using the software program SPuDS journal November 2001
Structural stability and formability of AB O 3 -type perovskite compounds journal November 2007
New tolerance factor to predict the stability of perovskite oxides and halides journal February 2019
Complementary evaluation of structure stability of perovskite oxides using bond-valence and density-functional-theory calculations journal February 2018
Computationally Accelerated Discovery and Experimental Demonstration of Gd0.5La0.5Co0.5Fe0.5O3 for Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen Production journal October 2021
Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set journal July 1996
Communication: The electronic entropy of charged defect formation and its impact on thermochemical redox cycles journal February 2018
Cerium ion redox system in CeO2–xFe2O3 solid solution at high temperatures (1,273–1,673 K) in the two-step water-splitting reaction for solar H2 generation journal May 2008
Solar hydrogen production via a two-step water-splitting thermochemical cycle based on Zn/ZnO redox reactions journal June 2002
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
Materials design of perovskite solid solutions for thermochemical applications journal January 2019
Thermodynamic and kinetic assessments of strontium-doped lanthanum manganite perovskites for two-step thermochemical water splitting journal January 2014
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
A review and perspective of efficient hydrogen generation via solar thermal water splitting: A review and perspective of efficient hydrogen generation
  • Muhich, Christopher L.; Ehrhart, Brian D.; Al-Shankiti, Ibraheam
  • Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Vol. 5, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.174
journal May 2015
Hydrogen production from water utilizing solar heat at high temperatures journal January 1977
Ab initio thermodynamics of intrinsic oxygen vacancies in ceria journal October 2012
Commentary: The Materials Project: A materials genome approach to accelerating materials innovation journal July 2013
Factors Affecting the Efficiency of Solar Driven Metal Oxide Thermochemical Cycles journal February 2013
The classification of tilted octahedra in perovskites journal November 1972
Considerations in the Design of Materials for Solar-Driven Fuel Production Using Metal-Oxide Thermochemical Cycles journal October 2013
Double perovskite anti-supported rare earth oxide catalyst CeO2/La2CoFeO6 for efficient ventilation air methane combustion journal April 2021
The Hiphive Package for the Extraction of High‐Order Force Constants by Machine Learning journal February 2019
Comparing the solar-to-fuel energy conversion efficiency of ceria and perovskite based thermochemical redox cycles for splitting H2O and CO2 journal October 2018
Ln 0.5 A 0.5 MnO 3 (Ln=Lanthanide, A= Ca, Sr) Perovskites Exhibiting Remarkable Performance in the Thermochemical Generation of CO and H 2 from CO 2 and H 2 O journal March 2015
Tunable thermodynamic activity of La x Sr 1−x Mn y Al 1−y O 3−δ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1, 0 ≤ y ≤ 1) perovskites for solar thermochemical fuel synthesis journal January 2017
Solar thermochemical production of hydrogen––a review journal May 2005
Oxidation energies of transition metal oxides within the GGA + U framework journal May 2006
Determination of B-site ordering and structural transformations in the mixed transition metal perovskites La 2 CoMnO 6 and La 2 NiMnO 6 journal July 2003
Python Materials Genomics (pymatgen): A robust, open-source python library for materials analysis journal February 2013