Browsing by Author "Ikeda, Yuji"

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Open Access
Ab initio phase stabilities and mechanical properties of multicomponent alloys: a comprehensive review for high entropy alloys and compositionally complex alloys
(2019) Ikeda, Yuji; Grabowski, Blazej; Körmann, Fritz
Multicomponent alloys with multiple principal elements including high entropy alloys (HEAs) and compositionally complex alloys (CCAs) are attracting rapidly growing attention. The endless possibilities to explore new alloys and the hope for better combinations of materials properties have stimulated a remarkable number of research works in the last years. Most of these works have been based on experimental approaches, but ab initio calculations have emerged as a powerful approach that complements experiment and serves as a predictive tool for the identification and characterization of promising alloys. The theoretical ab initio modeling of phase stabilities and mechanical properties of multi-principal element alloys by means of density functional theory (DFT) is reviewed. A general thermodynamic framework is laid down that provides a bridge between the quantities accessible with DFT and the targeted thermodynamic and mechanical properties. It is shown how chemical disorder and various finite-temperature excitations can be modeled with DFT. Different concepts to study crystal and alloy phase stabilities, the impact of lattice distortions (a core effect of HEAs), magnetic transitions, and chemical short-range order are discussed along with specific examples. Strategies to study elastic properties, stacking fault energies, and their dependence on, e.g., temperature or alloy composition are illustrated. Finally, we provide an extensive compilation of multi-principal element alloys and various material properties studied with DFT so far (a set of over 500 alloy-property combinations).
Open Access
Chemically induced local lattice distortions versus structural phase transformations in compositionally complex alloys
(2021) Ikeda, Yuji; Gubaev, Konstantin; Neugebauer, Jörg; Grabowski, Blazej; Körmann, Fritz
Recent experiments show that the chemical composition of body-centered cubic (bcc) refractory high entropy alloys (HEAs) can be tuned to enable transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP), which significantly improves the ductility of these alloys. This calls for an accurate and efficient method to map the structural stability as a function of composition. A key challenge for atomistic simulations is to separate the structural transformation between the bcc and the ω phases from the intrinsic local lattice distortions in such chemically disordered alloys. To solve this issue, we develop a method that utilizes a symmetry analysis to detect differences in the crystal structures. Utilizing this method in combination with ab initio calculations, we demonstrate that local lattice distortions largely affect the phase stability of Ti-Zr-Hf-Ta and Ti-Zr-Nb-Hf-Ta HEAs. If relaxation effects are properly taken into account, the predicted compositions near the bcc–hcp energetic equilibrium are close to the experimental compositions, for which good strength and ductility due to the TRIP effect are observed.
Open Access
Correlation analysis of strongly fluctuating atomic volumes, charges, and stresses in body-centered cubic refractory high-entropy alloys
(2020) Ishibashi, Shoji; Ikeda, Yuji; Körmann, Fritz; Grabowski, Blazej; Neugebauer, Jörg
Local lattice distortions in a series of body-centered cubic alloys, including refractory high-entropy alloys, are investigated by means of atomic volumes, atomic charges, and atomic stresses defined by the Bader charge analysis based on first-principles calculations. Analyzing the extensive data sets, we find large distributions of these atomic properties for each element in each alloy, indicating a large impact of the varying local chemical environments. We show that these local-environment effects can be well understood and captured already by the first and the second nearest neighbor shells. Based on this insight, we employ linear regression models up to the second nearest neighbor shell to accurately predict these atomic properties. Finally, we find that the elementwise-averaged values of the atomic properties correlate linearly with the averaged valence-electron concentration of the considered alloys.
Open Access
Crystal structure and phase stability of Co2N: a combined first-principles and experimental study
(2021) Ikeda, Yuji; Lehmann, Tanja S.; Widenmeyer, Marc; Coduri, Mauro; Grabowski, Blazej; Niewa, Rainer
The crystal structure and phase stability of Co2N are revisited based on experiments and first-principles calculations. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) measurements and Rietveld refinements clearly confirm that the stable crystal structure of Co2N is an isotype of η-Fe2C and Co2C with the space group Pnnm rather than the closely related ζ-Fe2N with the space group Pbcn. The refined lattice parameters of Co2N in the Pnnm structure are a = 4.6108(1) Å, b = 4.3498(1) Å, c = 2.85592(7) Å, obtained from X-ray diffraction using synchrotron radiation. Furthermore, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) with subsequent diffraction experiments reveal an endothermal transition to an ε-type order at 398 °C followed by an exothermal decomposition at 446 °C. First-principles density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations including the Hubbard U correction (DFT+U) demonstrate that it is essential for transition metal nitrides to consider strong electron correlation to predict the correct experimental structure and magnetic state. In particular, an effective value of Ueff = 2.75 eV can be utilized to obtain an antiferromagnetic Pnnm phase of Co2N in agreement with experiments.
Open Access
Dynamic stabilization of perovskites at elevated temperatures : a comparison between cubic BaFeO3 and vacancy-ordered monoclinic BaFeO2.67
(2022) Ou, Yongliang; Ikeda, Yuji; Clemens, Oliver; Grabowski, Blazej
The impact of ordered vacancies on the dynamic stability of perovskites is investigated under the ab initio framework with a focus on cubic BaFeO3 (Pm¯3m) and vacancy-ordered monoclinic BaFeO2.67 (P21/m). The harmonic approximation shows that both structures are dynamically unstable at 0 K. For the monoclinic structure, the instability is related to rotational distortions of the Fe coordination tetrahedra near the ordered vacancies. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations in combination with the introduced structural descriptor demonstrate that both structures are stabilized above 130 K. Our results suggest that the ordered vacancies do not significantly alter the critical temperature at which Ba-Fe-O perovskites are dynamically stabilized. Furthermore, strong anharmonicity for the vacancy-ordered structure above its critical temperature is revealed by a significant asymmetry of the trajectories of O anions near the ordered vacancies.
Open Access
Finite-temperature interplay of structural stability, chemical complexity, and elastic properties of bcc multicomponent alloys from ab initio trained machine-learning potentials
(2021) Gubaev, Konstantin; Ikeda, Yuji; Tasnádi, Ferenc; Neugebauer, Jörg; Shapeev, Alexander V.; Grabowski, Blazej; Körmann, Fritz
An active learning approach to train machine-learning interatomic potentials (moment tensor potentials) for multicomponent alloys to ab initio data is presented. Employing this approach, the disordered body-centered cubic (bcc) TiZrHfTax system with varying Ta concentration is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show a strong interplay between elastic properties and the structural ω phase stability, strongly affecting the mechanical properties. Based on these insights we systematically screen composition space for regimes where elastic constants show little or no temperature dependence (elinvar effect).
Open Access
High-entropy hydrides for fast and reversible hydrogen storage at room temperature : binding-energy engineering via first-principles calculations and experiments
(2022) Abbas, Mohammadi; Ikeda, Yuji; Edalati, Parisa; Mito, Masaki; Grabowski, Blazej; Edalati, Kaveh
Despite high interest in compact and safe storage of hydrogen in the solid-state hydride form, the de- sign of alloys that can reversibly and quickly store hydrogen at room temperature under pressures close to atmospheric pressure is a long-lasting challenge. In this study, first-principles calculations are combined with experiments to develop high-entropy alloys (HEAs) for room-temperature hydrogen storage. TixZr2-xCrMnFeNi (x = 0.4-1.6) alloys with the Laves phase structure and low hydrogen binding energies of -0.1 to -0.15 eV are designed and synthesized. The HEAs reversibly store hydrogen in the form of Laves phase hydrides at room temperature, while (de)hydrogenation pressure systematically reduces with increasing the zirconium fraction in good agreement with the binding energy calculations. The kinetics of hydrogenation are fast, the hydrogenation occurs without any activation or catalytic treatment, the hydrogen storage performance remains stable for at least 1000 cycles, and the storage capacity is higher than that for commercial LaNi5. The current findings demonstrate that a combination of theoretical calculations and experiments is a promising pathway to design new high-entropy hydrides with high performance for hydrogen storage.
Open Access
Interstitials in compositionally complex alloys
(2023) Baker, Ian; Grabowski, Blazej; Divinski, Sergiy V.; Zhang, Xi; Ikeda, Yuji
The effects of interstitial alloying on the mechanical and diffusive properties of compositionally complex alloys (CCAs), including high-entropy alloys (HEAs), are reviewed. The solubility of interstitial elements in CCAs can be extraordinarily high, a feature corroborated by ab initio density functional theory simulations. The yield stresses, work-hardening rates, and Hall-Petch slopes of CCAs are normally reported to increase due to interstitial alloying. In some CCAs, interstitial alloying has been found to enhance both strength and ductility, thus circumventing the traditional tradeoff between these properties. Self-diffusivities of the HEA CoCrFeMnNi are found to show complex dependences on interstitial C concentration as well as on temperature. Some CCAs with Laves phase or body-centered cubic crystal structures show potential as hydrogen-storage materials, with both experimental and computational research in this area steadily increasing. Based on the insights obtained, possible directions for further studies on the impacts of interstitial alloying in CCAs are suggested.
Open Access
Li5Sn, the most lithium-rich binary stannide : a combined experimental and computational study
(2022) Stelzer, Robert U.; Ikeda, Yuji; Srinivasan, Prashanth; Lehmann, Tanja S.; Grabowski, Blazej; Niewa, Rainer
From reaction of excess lithium with tin, we isolate well-crystallized Li5Sn and solve the crystal structure from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. The orthorhombic structure (space group Cmcm) features the same coordination polyhedra around tin and lithium as previously predicted by electronic structure calculations for this composition, however differently arranged. An extensive ab initio analysis, including thermodynamic integration using Langevin dynamics in combination with a machine-learning potential (moment tensor potential), is conducted to understand the thermodynamic stability of this Cmcm Li5Sn structure observed in our experiments. Among the 108 Li5Sn structures systematically derived using the structure enumeration algorithm, including the experimental Cmcm structure and those obtained in previous ab initio studies, another new structure with the space group Immm is found to be energetically most stable at 0 K. This computationally discovered Immm structure is also found to be thermodynamically more stable than the Cmcm structure at finite temperatures, indicating that the Cmcm Li5Sn structure observed in our experiments is favored likely due to kinetic reasons rather than thermodynamics.
Open Access
Structural and magnetic properties of newly found BaFeO2.667 synthesized by oxidizing BaFeO2.5 obtained via nebulized spray pyrolysis
(2021) Wollstadt, Stephan; Ikeda, Yuji; Sarkar, Abhishek; Vasala, Sami; Fasel, Claudia; Alff, Lambert; Kruk, Robert; Grabowski, Blazej; Clemens, Oliver
A new vacancy-ordered perovskite-type compound Ba3Fe3O8 (BaFeO2.667) was prepared by oxidizing BaFeO2.5 (P21/c) with the latter compound obtained by a spray-pyrolysis technique. The structure of Ba3Fe3O8 was found to be isotypic to Ba3Fe3O7F (P21/m) and can be written as Ba3Fe3+2Fe4+1O8. Mössbauer spectroscopy and ab initio calculations were used to confirm mixed iron oxidation states, showing allocation of the tetravalent iron species on the tetrahedral site and octahedral as well as square pyramidal coordination for the trivalent species within a G-type antiferromagnetic ordering. The uptake and release of oxygen was investigated over a broad temperature range from RT to 1100 °C under pure oxygen and ambient atmosphere via a combination of DTA/TG and variable temperature diffraction measurements. The compound exhibits a strong lattice enthalpy driven reduction to monoclinic and cubic BaFeO2.5 at elevated temperatures.