Tag: featured

Announcements, Publications

Crystalium released

We have published the world’s largest database of surface energies and Wulff shapes, dubbed Crystalium. A collaborative effort between the Materials Virtual Lab and the Materials Project, this new open-source database can help researchers design new materials for technologies in which surfaces and interfaces play an important role, such as fuel cells, catalytic converters in cars, computer microchips, nanomaterials and solid-state batteries. You can read more about it in the UCSD press release on EurekAlert! This work is published in Scientific Data as an open-access article, and Richard Tran, one of our undergraduate volunteers, is the first author.

Publications

Dopant segregation and embrittlement at Mo grain boundaries

Richard Tran and Zihan Xu published their paper on “Computational study of metallic dopant segregation and embrittlement at Molybdenum grain boundaries” in Acta Materialia. Mo and its alloys are important refractory materials for high temperature applications, but suffer from low ductility. In this work, we investigated the segregation and strengthening effects of 29 metallic dopants using DFT and empirical continuum models. We show that dopant chemistry and site preference plays a significant role in segregation behavior and strengthening effects at the GBs that deviate from simple bond-breaking arguments. Ta, Re, Os and W are predicted to have a weak strengthening effect on Mo for the Σ5(310) tilt GB, and Mn, Fe, Co and Nb are predicted to have reasonable strengthening effects for the Σ5(100) twist GB. Check out the paper at our publications page.

Publications

Electronic structure descriptor for narrow-band red phosphors

Congratulations to Zhenbin on his first paper “Electronic Structure Descriptor for Discovery of Narrow-Band Red-Emitting Phosphors” in Chemistry of Materials! Narrow-band red-emitting phosphors are a critical component in phosphor-converted light-emitting diodes for highly efficient illumination-grade lighting. In this work, we report the discovery of a quantitative descriptor for narrow-band Eu2+-activated emission identified through a comparison of the electronic structure of known narrow-band and broad-band phosphors. By incorporating this descriptor in a high throughput first principles screening of 2,259 nitride compounds, we identify five promising new nitride hosts for Eu2+-activated red-emitting phosphors that are predicted to exhibit good chemical stability, thermal quenching resistance and quantum efficiency, as well as narrow-band emission.