Recently, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have been widely used for energy harvesting and self-powered sensing due to their significant and unique advantages. However, the intrinsic mechanisms that contribute to tribo-electricification (TE) between two materials remain as a subject of rigorous debate. In addition to predicting the qualitative charge transfer in solid-solid contacts based on the difference in the work functions of the two moieties constituting the interface, we argue that it is essential to obtain atomic-level, first principles, insights into the bonding properties, quantitative charge transfer, and the possible presence of a electrostatic potential barrier at the interface to fully understand the TE mechanism of a system. We have utilized dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT) calculations in this study to systematically investigate the TE potential of bare surface Ti3C2 and Ti3N2 2D MXene monolayers and their surface functionalized modifications Ti3C2R2 and Ti3N2R2 (where R = -O, -OH, or -F) in contact with Al(111). For these heterostructures, we have analyzed the adhesive energy of the interfaces, the nature of interaction through the electron localization function (ELF), and the charge distribution, which have revealed distinct characteristics of MXene/Al contacts for these monolayer/metal interfaces at their equilibrium distance and the changes in their properties under uniaxial pressure. Among all the metallic 2D MXene variants investigated in this study, we have determined that Ti3C2F2/Al and Ti3N2F2/Al interfaces show exceptional potential for TE.

Half-metallic materials having a large band gap (Eg) along with giant magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE) have been proposed to be crucial for the development of magnetic tunnel junctions. Herein, electron-doped Ca2FeOsO6 (CFOO) double perovskite oxide is investigated by employing ab-initio calculations with the inclusion of Hubbard U and spin–orbit coupling effects. Electron doping is realized by introducing Co+2/Ni+2 ion with 3d7 (t2g3 ↑ t2g2 ↓ eg2 ↑ eg0 ↓)/3d8 (t2g3 ↑ t2g3 ↓ eg2 ↑ eg0 ↓) configuration at Fe+33d5 (t2g3 ↑ t2g0 ↓ eg2 ↑ eg0 ↓) site. The thermodynamical, mechanical, and dynamical stability of these motifs for determining the synthesis feasibility at ambient conditions is established by calculating the formation energetics, elastic constants, and phonon band structure, respectively. The undoped CFOO system displays a ferrimagnetic Mott-insulating behavior due to a strong antiferromagnetic coupling between Fe and Os ions. On the other hand, electron doping induces half metallicity in CFOO, where extra electrons provided by TM-dopants produce a repulsion in the partially filled Os t2g3↓ spin-minority channel. As a consequence, the Os bands near the Fermi level are shifted to higher energetics; resulting in a conducting nature for the doped motifs. Therefore, Os ion remains in the mixed formal valence states of Os+5 and Os+6/Os+7, which reduces the moments as well. Most remarkably, a large Eg of 1.26/1.65 eV exists in the spin-majority channel of Co/Ni-doped structure, which is highly desired to effectively suppress the spin-flipping and affirm the large mean free path for spins along with a high spin-filtering response. Our results also demonstrated that the half metallicity of the studied TM-doped CFOO is robust and can be preserved under a reasonable magnitude of biaxial strains ([110]). Additionally, a sizeable MAE constant of ∼×107 erg/cm3 indicates that these materials could be potential candidates for the data storage devices.

In the present work, we investigate, for the first time, quasi 3D porous tetragonal silicon–carbon polymorphs t(SiC)₁₂ and t(SiC)₂₀ on the basis of first-principles density functional theory calculations. The structural design of these q3-t(SiC)12 and q3-t(SiC)₂₀ polymorphs follows an intuitive rational approach based on armchair nanotubes of a tetragonal SiC monolayer where C–C and Si–Si bonds are arranged in a paired configuration for retaining a 1:1 ratio of the two elements. Our calculations uncover that q3-t(SiC)₁₂ and q3-t(SiC)₂₀ polymorphs are thermally, dynamically, and mechanically stable with this lattice framework. The results demonstrate that the smaller polymorph q3-t(SiC)₁₂ shows a small band gap (∼0.59 eV), while the larger polymorph of q3-t(SiC)₂₀ displays a Dirac nodal line semimetal. Moreover, the 1D channels are favorable for accommodating Na ions with excellent (>300 mAh g^–1) reversible theoretical capacities. Thus confirming potential suitability of the two porous polymorphs with an appropriate average voltage and vanishingly small volume change (<6%) as anodes for Na-ion batteries.

Anti-perovskites A₃SnO (A = Ca, Sr, and Ba) are an important class of materials due to the emergence of Dirac cones and tiny mass gaps in their band structures originating from an intricate interplay of crystal symmetry, spin-orbit coupling, and band overlap. This provides an exciting playground for modulating their electronic properties in the two-dimensional (2D) limit. Herein, we employ first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations by combining dispersion-corrected SCAN + rVV10 and mBJ functionals for a comprehensive side-by-side comparison of the structural, thermodynamic, dynamical, mechanical, electronic, and thermoelectric properties of bulk and monolayer (one unit cell thick) A₃SnO anti-perovskites. Our results show that 2D monolayers derived from bulk A₃SnO anti-perovskites are structurally and energetically stable. Moreover, Rashba-type splitting in the electronic structure of Ca₃SnO and Sr₃SnO monolayers is observed owing to strong spin-orbit coupling and inversion asymmetry. On the other hand, monolayer Ba₃SnO exhibits Dirac cone at the high-symmetry Γ point due to the domination of band overlap. Based on the predicted electronic transport properties, it is shown that inversion asymmetry plays an essential character such that the monolayers Ca₃SnO and Sr₃SnO outperform thermoelectric performance of their bulk counterparts.

A reliable first-principles account of experimentally observed physical properties of perovskite oxides is crucial for realizing their employment in electronic and optical devices. In this context, SCAN meta-GGA functional of DFT offers good approximation for the exchange-correlation energy; facilitating accurate determination of structural and energetic properties. However, SCAN is unable to reproduce electronic and optical properties of wide bad gap materials. In the present study, we report systematic DFT calculations to show that structural, energetic, electronic and optical properties of hafnium based BaHfO₃ and SrHfO₃ perovskite oxides can be accurately determined through a combine application of SCAN and Tran-Blaha modified Becke-Johnson (TB-mBJ) meta-GGAs. The structural and energetic properties computed using SCAN functional for both BaHfO₃ and SrHfO₃ are found to be in good agreement with experimental data; achieving a level of accuracy comparable to computationally expansive hybrid DFT calculations. On the other hand, TB-mBJ calculated band gaps computed using the SCAN optimized lattice parameters provide better agreement with experimental data at a low computational cost. The optical properties, band edge potentials and effective masses of the charge carriers in BaHfO₃ and SrHfO₃ are also computed to examine the combined application of SCAN and TB-mBJ meta-GGAs in predicting the photocatalytic performance of these wide band gap materials. Our results clearly show that the combination of the two meta-GGAs provide a computationally economical route for evaluating the photocatalytic performance of alkaline-earth metal hafnates.

Band gap tuning of titanium based perovskite oxides through chalcogen doping is an attractive avenue for realizing visible light driven photocatalysis for hydrogen production. Unfortunately, accommodating a chalcogen atom at an O-site of BaTiO3 is thermodynamically challenging owing to large differences in the atomic radii and electronegativities of oxygen and chalcogen atoms. In the present study we employ first-principles density functional theory calculations to examine the influence of Zr codoping on the structural, thermodynamic, opto-electronic properties and photocatalytic performance of X-doped (X = S, Se and Te) BaTiO3 systems. The atomic structure and energetic properties are computed using SCAN meta-GGA functional of density functional theory, while the electronic and optical properties are computed using the TB-mBJ meta-GGA potential functional. Within the valid limits of the atomic chemical potentials, we find that chalcogen doping in BaTiO3 lattice would be experimentally difficult despite a clear reduction in the electronic band gap of this system useful for application in visible light driven photocatalysis. In order to improve the synthesis feasibility of X-doped BaTiO3 under oxygen-rich as well as oxygen-poor chemical environments, we propose Zr as a codopant at a Ti-site in X-doped BaTiO3 which improves the thermodynamic stability and also retains the reduction in the electronic band gap of BaTiO3 caused by the presence of chalcogen atom. Our results suggest that Zr+X (X = S, Se and Te) codoped BaTiO3 offers great opportunities as a practical photocatalysts for hydrogen production through overall splitting of the water molecule.

In this letter density functional theory calculations are used for investigating the structural, energetic and electronic properties of CaSn- and Ca₂O-terminated (001) surfaces of anti-perovskite Ca₃SnO. Our calculations indicate larger structural changes in case of the CaSn-terminated (001) surface of Ca₃SnO, however, both CaSn- and Ca₂O-terminated surfaces of Ca₃SnO are found to be energetically stable. The electronic properties of (001) surfaces of Ca₃SnO are examined by taking spin-orbit coupling into account. Comparison of the simulated results of electronic properties for the two (001) surfaces of Ca₃SnO with experimentally reported hole carrier densities observed in p-type polycrystalline samples show good agreement.