A DFT+U Study of the Oxygen Defect Formation in (Sr1-xPrx)2FeO4
Authors: Szaro Nicholas , Ammal Salai Cheettu , Heyden Andreas 
Published: July 2021

INTRODUCTION

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrodes are commonly composed of cermet materials, a composite of ceramic and metal materials. Despite success in electrochemical performance, cermet materials suffer from sulfur poisoning at the triple-phase boundary (TPB), high operating temperatures, and metal coarsening. To mitigate these problems, single-phase mixed ionic-electronic conducting (MIEC) materials have been investigated as alternative electrode materials. One such class of materials is the Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) phase (An+1BnO3n+1), a perovskite composed of n layers of octahedra in a perovskite (ABO3) stack. The RP family of Srn+1FenO3n+1 has found recent use as a base stoichiometry in both cathodes1 and anodes2 with and without A-site trivalent dopants. In order to rationalize the design of RP electrodes, we elaborate on the relationship of MIEC properties as a function of A-site dopant concentration at the atomistic level. In the present study, we used ab initio methods to investigate the relationship between Pr3+ concentration, iron oxidation state, and charge compensation upon defect formation to better understand the role of the A-site on the ionic and electronic properties in (Sr1-xPrx)2FeO4±
𝛿 (x = 0, 0.125, 0.25, 0.375, 0.5).

COMPUTATIONAL DETAILS

All calculations presented in this work were performed using the spin-polarized DFT+U method with periodic boundary conditions as implemented in the VASP 5.4.4 code. We choose the PBE functional to describe exchange and correlation effects. Dudarev’s approach for DFT+U calculations is used to correct the inadequate description of localized 3d electrons on Fe and 4f electrons on Pr with a U-J value of 4.0 and 6.0 eV, respectively. We used the projector-augmented wave (PAW) method to represent the inner core potentials. The kinetic energy cutoff was set for all calculations to 750 eV, and integration over the Brillouin zone was performed with 5×5×3 Monkhorst-Point k-point mesh and the tetrahedron method with Blöchl corrections.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To sample all possible structural conformations at a given dopant concentration, we tested all non-symmetrical conformers for the lowest relative energy on a model 2×2×1 supercell, as displayed in Figure 1a. A total of 7, 42, 123, and 181 structures were tested for each dopant configuration, respectively. We calculate metallic behavior for x = 0.125 and 0.25 and semi-conducting behavior for x = 0, 0.375 and 0.5, indicating electronic conductivity decreases upon increasing A-site dopant concentration. Figure 1b displays the relationship between the final optimized dopant configurations and defect stability. The interstitial formation energy decreases linearly with Pr concentration with a deviation at x = 0.125. This relationship is primarily a function of the neighboring cation elemental identity and the decreasing interatomic distance between the interstitial defect and the neighboring cations in the rocksalt regime. The vacancy formation energy appears constant with Pr except for a large energy penalty at x = 0.5. The origin of the harsh energy penalty is rooted in the over-reduction of Fe. Upon vacancy formation, the released electrons directly reduce the next-nearest Fe atoms from +3 to +2 as opposed to delocalizing upon the oxide lattice. Figure 1c displays the relationship between the degree of delocalization and the energy of vacancy formation. The degree of delocalization3 is a dimensionless quantity that describes the extent of charge delocalized upon the oxygen sublattice with a vacancy. For x = 0 to 0.375, vacancy formation delocalizes the released electrons onto the lattice as opposed to x = 0.5, where charge from the lattice directly reduces Fe. Covalence between Fe-O bonds is decreased upon the formation of Fe2+, causing a harsh penalty in vacancy formation.
In conclusion, tuning MIEC behavior is a balance between reducing Fe and charge delocalization upon the oxide lattice. In terms of electronic conductivity, a small introduction of Pr yielded metallic behavior. In terms of ionic conductivity, a threshold value of Pr yields an unfavorable vacancy formation energy. Future studies will focus on the optimization of the catalytic activity by B-site doping.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has been funded by the Division of Materials Research, a National Science Foundation organization under Award Number 1832809. Computing resources provided by the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) under XSEDE grant number TG-CTS090100 and USC High-Performance Computing clusters are gratefully acknowledged.

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Figure 1