First-principles study of the structural and dynamic properties of the liquid and amorphous Li–Si alloys
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China)
- National Center for High-Performance Computing, Tainan 74147, Taiwan (China)
We have performed density functional theory calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics to investigate the structures and dynamic properties of the liquid and amorphous Li{sub x}Si alloys over a range of composition from x = 1.0 − 4.8. Our results show that Si atoms can form a variety of covalently bonded polyanions with diverse local bonding structures in the liquid alloys. Like in c-LiSi, Si atoms can form a continuous bond network in liquid Li{sub 1.0}Si at 1050 K, while it gradually disintegrates into many smaller Si polyanions as the Li content increases in the alloys. The average sizes of Si polyanions in these liquid alloys were found to be relatively larger than those in their crystalline counterparts, which can even persist in the highly lithiated Li{sub 4.81}Si alloy at 1500 K. Our results also show that amorphous Li{sub x}Si alloys have similar local bonding structures but a largely increased short-range order as compared to their liquid counterparts. The differences between the average coordination number of each atomic pair in amorphous solids and that in the liquids are less than 1.1. Furthermore, our calculations reveal that Li and Si atoms can exhibit very distinct dynamic behaviors in the liquids and their diffusivities appear to be largely dependent on the chemical composition of the alloys. The diffusivity of Li was found to increase with the Li content in the alloys primarily because of the reduced interactions between Li and Si atoms, while the Si diffusivity also increases due to the gradual disintegration of the strongly interconnected Si bond network. The diffusivity of Li in amorphous Li{sub x}Si was predicted to lie in the range between 10{sup −7} and 10{sup −9} cm{sup 2}/s at 300 K, which is more than 20-fold larger than that of Si over the composition range considered. Our calculations further show that the diffusivities of both Li and Si can increase by two orders of magnitude as x increases from 1.0 to 3.57 in amorphous Li{sub x}Si, indicating a more profound dependence on the alloy composition than those in the liquid state.
- OSTI ID:
- 22493669
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 144, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9606
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Molecular dynamics simulations of the first charge of a Li-ion—Si-anode nanobattery
Structural evolution and atomic dynamics in Ni–Nb metallic glasses: A molecular dynamics study
Related Subjects
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
AMORPHOUS STATE
ATOMS
CHEMICAL BONDS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
COORDINATION NUMBER
COVALENCE
DENSITY FUNCTIONAL METHOD
LIQUIDS
LITHIUM ALLOYS
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
SILICON ALLOYS
SOLIDS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE