Amit Samanta

Interfacial plasticity governs strain rate sensitivity and ductility in nanostructured metals.

Nano-twinned copper exhibits an unusual combination of ultrahigh strength and high ductility, along with increased strain-rate sensitivity. We develop a mechanistic framework for predicting the rate sensitivity and elucidating the origin of ductility in terms of the interactions of dislocations with interfaces. Using atomistic reaction pathway calculations, we show that slip transfer reactions mediated by twin boundary are the rate-controlling mechanisms of plastic flow. We attribute the relatively high ductility of nano-twinned copper to the hardening of twin boundaries as they gradually lose coherency during plastic deformation. These findings provide insights into the possible means of optimizing strength and ductility through interfacial engineering.

Theoretical assessment of the elastic constants and hydrogen storage capacity of some metal-organic framework materials.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising materials for applications such as separation, catalysis, and gas storage. A key indicator of their structural stability is the shear modulus. By density functional theory calculations in a 106-atom supercell, under the local density approximation, we find c(11)=29.2 GPa and c(12)=13.1 GPa for Zn-based MOF 5. However, we find c(44) of MOF-5 to be exceedingly small, only 1.4 GPa at T=0 K. The binding energy E(ads) of a single hydrogen molecule in MOF-5 is evaluated using the same setup. We find it to be -0.069 to -0.086 eVH(2) near the benzene linker and -0.106 to -0.160 eVH(2) near the Zn(4)O tetrahedra. Substitutions of chlorine and hydroxyl in the benzene linker have negligible effect on the physisorption energies. Pentacoordinated copper (and aluminum) in a framework structure similar to MOF-2 gives E(ads) approximately -0.291 eVH(2) (and -0.230 eVH(2)), and substitution of nitrogen in benzene (pyrazine) further enhances E(ads) near the organic linker to -0.16 eVH(2), according to density functional theory with local density approximation.

Microscopic mechanisms of equilibrium melting of a solid

Melting can follow many pathways Melting involves the loss of order as additional kinetic energy is added to a system. Although simple models of this sort of phase transition exist, it can be very difficult to observe the initial stages either experimentally or using simulations. Samanta et al. developed a robust rareevent sampling technique that makes it possible to examine melting events without needing excessive computing time (see the Perspective by van de Walle). For both copper and aluminum, they observed the formation of defects that act as starting points for the melting process rather than the homogeneous loss of order assumed in classic nucleation theory. Science, this issue p. 729 Multiple competing pathways direct a metallic solid to its molten state. [Also see Perspective by van de Walle] The melting of a solid, like other first-order phase transitions, exhibits an intrinsic time-scale disparity: The time spent by the system in metastable states is orders of magnitude longer than the transition times between the states. Using rare-event sampling techniques, we find that melting of representative solids—here, copper and aluminum—occurs via multiple, competing pathways involving the formation and migration of point defects or dislocations. Each path is characterized by multiple barrier-crossing events arising from multiple metastable states within the solid basin. At temperatures approaching superheating, melting becomes a single barrier-crossing process, and at the limit of superheating, the melting mechanism is driven by a vibrational instability. Our findings reveal the importance of nonlocal behavior, suggesting a revision of the perspective of classical nucleation theory.

Atomistic simulations of rare events using gentlest ascent dynamics

The dynamics of complex systems often involve thermally activated barrier crossing events that allow these systems to move from one basin of attraction on the high dimensional energy surface to another. Such events are ubiquitous, but challenging to simulate using conventional simulation tools, such as molecular dynamics. Recently, E and Zhou [Nonlinearity 24(6), 1831 (2011)] proposed a set of dynamic equations, the gentlest ascent dynamics (GAD), to describe the escape of a system from a basin of attraction and proved that solutions of GAD converge to index-1 saddle points of the underlying energy. In this paper, we extend GAD to enable finite temperature simulations in which the system hops between different saddle points on the energy surface. An effective strategy to use GAD to sample an ensemble of low barrier saddle points located in the vicinity of a locally stable configuration on the high dimensional energy surface is proposed. The utility of the method is demonstrated by studying the low barrier saddle points associated with point defect activity on a surface. This is done for two representative systems, namely, (a) a surface vacancy and ad-atom pair and (b) a heptamer island on the (111) surface of copper.

Fluid like behavior of oxygen in cubic zirconia under extreme conditions

Using atomistic simulations, we analyze the defect chemistry and ionic mobility in the high temperature cubic phase of zirconia to gain insights into the stability of the zirconia lattice. In the temperature range of 2600-2980 K, we find anionic defects can occupy a significant fraction of the total anionic sites. In cognizance with the fact that these defects have low diffusion barriers, we conclude that the anionic sub-lattice is highly mobile and is fluid-like at these temperatures.

Extraction of effective solid-liquid interfacial free energies for full 3D solid crystallites from equilibrium MD simulations

Molecular dynamics simulations of an embedded atom copper system in the isobaric-isenthalpic ensemble are used to study the effective solid-liquid interfacial free energy of quasi-spherical solid crystals within a liquid. This is within the larger context of molecular dynamics simulations of this system undergoing solidification, where single individually prepared crystallites of different sizes grow until they reach a thermodynamically stable final state. The resulting equilibrium shapes possess the full structural details expected for solids with weakly anisotropic surface free energies (in these cases, ∼5% radial flattening and rounded [111] octahedral faces). The simplifying assumption of sphericity and perfect isotropy leads to an effective interfacial free energy as appearing in the Gibbs-Thomson equation, which we determine to be ∼177 erg/cm2, roughly independent of crystal size for radii in the 50-250 Å range. This quantity may be used in atomistically informed models of solidification kinetics for this system.