Roadmap on organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite semiconductors and devices

in APL Materials (2021)

Metal halide perovskites are the first solution processed semiconductors that can compete in their functionality with conventional semiconductors, such as silicon. Over the past several years, perovskite ... [more ▼]

Metal halide perovskites are the first solution processed semiconductors that can compete in their functionality with conventional semiconductors, such as silicon. Over the past several years, perovskite semiconductors have reported breakthroughs in various optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells, photodetectors, light emitting and memory devices, and so on. Until now, perovskite semiconductors face challenges regarding their stability, reproducibility, and toxicity. In this Roadmap, we combine the expertise of chemistry, physics, and device engineering from leading experts in the perovskite research community to focus on the fundamental material properties, the fabrication methods, characterization and photophysical properties, perovskite devices, and current challenges in this field. We develop a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art and offer readers an informed perspective of where this field is heading and what challenges we have to overcome to get to successful commercialization. [less ▲]

Modeling Adsorption and Reactions of Organic Molecules at Metal Surfaces

in ACCOUNTS OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH (2014), 47(11, SI), 3369-3377

CONSPECTUS: The understanding of adsorption and reactions of (large) organic molecules at metal surfaces plays an increasingly important role in modern surface science and technology. Such hybrid ... [more ▼]

CONSPECTUS: The understanding of adsorption and reactions of (large) organic molecules at metal surfaces plays an increasingly important role in modern surface science and technology. Such hybrid inorganic/organic systems (HIOS) are relevant for many applications in catalysis, light emitting diodes, single-molecule junctions, molecular sensors and switches, and photovoltaics. Obviously, the predictive modeling and understanding of the structure and stability of such hybrid systems is an essential prerequisite for tuning their electronic properties and functions. At present, density-functional theory (DFT) is the most promising approach to study the structure, stability, and electronic properties of complex systems, because it can be applied to both molecules and solids comprising thousands of atoms. However state-of-the-art approximations to DFT do not provide a consistent and reliable description for HIOS, which is largely due to two issues: (i) the self-interaction of the electrons with themselves arising from the Hartree term of the total energy that is not fully compensated in approximate exchange-correlation functionals, and (ii) the lack of long-range part of the ubiquitous van der Waals (vdW) interactions. The self-interaction errors sometimes lead to incorrect description of charge transfer and electronic level alignment in HIOS, although for molecules adsorbed on metals these effects will often cancel out in total energy differences. Regarding vdW interactions, several promising vdW-inclusive DFT-based methods have been recently demonstrated to yield remarkable accuracy for intermolecular interactions in the gas phase. However, the majority of these approaches neglect the nonlocal collective electron response in the vdW energy tail, an effect that is particularly strong in condensed phases and at interfaces between different materials. Here we show that the recently developed DFT+vdW(surf) method that accurately accounts for the collective electronic response effects enables reliable modeling of structure and stability for a broad class of organic molecules adsorbed on metal surfaces. This method was demonstrated to achieve quantitative accuracy for aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, naphthalene, anthracene, and diindenoperylene), C-60, and sulfur/oxygen-containing molecules (thiophene, NTCDA, and PTCDA) on dose-packed and stepped metal surfaces, leading to an overall accuracy of 0.1 angstrom in adsorption heights and 0.1 eV in binding energies with respect to state-of-the-art experiments. An unexpected finding is that vdW interactions contribute more to the binding of strongly bound molecules on transition-metal surfaces than for molecules physisorbed on coinage metals. The accurate inclusion of vdW interactions also significantly improves tilting angles and adsorption heights for all the studied molecules, and can qualitatively change the potential-energy surface for adsorbed molecules with flexible functional groups. Activation barriers for molecular switches and reaction precursors are modified as well. [less ▲]

On the accuracy of van der Waals inclusive density-functional theory exchange-correlation functionals for ice at ambient and high pressures

in JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS (2013), 139(15),

Density-functional theory (DFT) has been widely used to study water and ice for at least 20 years. However, the reliability of different DFT exchange-correlation (xc) functionals for water remains a ... [more ▼]

Density-functional theory (DFT) has been widely used to study water and ice for at least 20 years. However, the reliability of different DFT exchange-correlation (xc) functionals for water remains a matter of considerable debate. This is particularly true in light of the recent development of DFT based methods that account for van der Waals (vdW) dispersion forces. Here, we report a detailed study with several xc functionals (semi-local, hybrid, and vdW inclusive approaches) on ice Ih and six proton ordered phases of ice. Consistent with our previous study [B. Santra, J. Klimes, D. Alfe, A. Tkatchenko, B. Slater, A. Michaelides, R. Car, and M. Scheffler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 185701 (2011)] which showed that vdW forces become increasingly important at high pressures, we find here that all vdW inclusive methods considered improve the relative energies and transition pressures of the high-pressure ice phases compared to those obtained with semi-local or hybrid xc functionals. However, we also find that significant discrepancies between experiment and the vdW inclusive approaches remain in the cohesive properties of the various phases, causing certain phases to be absent from the phase diagram. Therefore, room for improvement in the description of water at ambient and high pressures remains and we suggest that because of the stern test the high pressure ice phases pose they should be used in future benchmark studies of simulation methods for water. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [less ▲]

Toward Low-Temperature Dehydrogenation Catalysis: Isophorone Adsorbed on Pd(111)

in Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (2012), 3(5), 582-586

Adsorbate geometry and reaction dynamics play essential roles in catalytic processes at surfaces. Here we present a theoretical and experimental study for a model functional organic/metal interface ... [more ▼]

Adsorbate geometry and reaction dynamics play essential roles in catalytic processes at surfaces. Here we present a theoretical and experimental study for a model functional organic/metal interface: isophorone (C9H14O) adsorbed on the Pd(111) surface. Density functional theory calculations with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhoff (PBE) functional including van der Waals (vdW) interactions, in combination with infrared spectroscopy and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) experiments reveal the reaction pathway between the weakly chemisorbed reactant (C9H14O) and the strongly chemisorbed product (C9H10O), which occurs by the cleavage of four C-H bonds below 250 K. Analysis of the TPD spectrum is consistent with the relatively small magnitude of the activation barrier derived from PBE+vdW calculations, demonstrating the feasibility of low-temperature dehydrogenation. [less ▲]

Accurate and Efficient Method for Many-Body van der Waals Interactions

in PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS (2012), 108(23),

An efficient method is developed for the microscopic description of the frequency-dependent polarizability of finite-gap molecules and solids. This is achieved by combining the Tkatchenko-Scheffler van ... [more ▼]

An efficient method is developed for the microscopic description of the frequency-dependent polarizability of finite-gap molecules and solids. This is achieved by combining the Tkatchenko-Scheffler van der Waals (vdW) method [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 073005 (2009)] with the self-consistent screening equation of classical electrodynamics. This leads to a seamless description of polarization and depolarization for the polarizability tensor of molecules and solids. The screened long-range many-body vdW energy is obtained from the solution of the Schrodinger equation for a system of coupled oscillators. We show that the screening and the many-body vdW energy play a significant role even for rather small molecules, becoming crucial for an accurate treatment of conformational energies for biomolecules and binding of molecular crystals. The computational cost of the developed theory is negligible compared to the underlying electronic structure calculation. [less ▲]

Density-Functional Theory with Screened van der Waals Interactions for the Modeling of Hybrid Inorganic-Organic Systems

in PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS (2012), 108(14),

The electronic properties and the function of hybrid inorganic-organic systems (HIOS) are intimately linked to their interface geometry. Here we show that the inclusion of the many-body collective ... [more ▼]

The electronic properties and the function of hybrid inorganic-organic systems (HIOS) are intimately linked to their interface geometry. Here we show that the inclusion of the many-body collective response of the substrate electrons inside the inorganic bulk enables us to reliably predict the HIOS geometries and energies. This is achieved by the combination of dispersion-corrected density-functional theory (the DFT+ van der Waals approach) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 073005 (2009)], with the Lifshitz-Zaremba-Kohn theory for the nonlocal Coulomb screening within the bulk. Our method yields geometries in remarkable agreement (approximate to 0.1 angstrom) with normal incidence x-ray standing wave measurements for the 3, 4, 9, 10-perylene-tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride (C24O6H8, PTCDA) molecule on Cu(111), Ag(111), and Au(111) surfaces. Similarly accurate results are obtained for xenon and benzene adsorbed on metal surfaces. [less ▲]

Dispersion Interactions with Density-Functional Theory: Benchmarking Semiempirical and Interatomic Pairwise Corrected Density Functionals

in JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL THEORY AND COMPUTATION (2011), 7(12), 3944-3951

We present a comparative assessment of the accuracy of two different approaches for evaluating dispersion interactions: interatomic pairwise corrections and semiempirical meta-generalized-gradient ... [more ▼]

We present a comparative assessment of the accuracy of two different approaches for evaluating dispersion interactions: interatomic pairwise corrections and semiempirical meta-generalized-gradient-approximation (meta-GGA)-based functionals. This is achieved by employing conventional (semi)local and (screened-)hybrid functionals, as well as semiempirical hybrid and nonhybrid meta-GGA functionals of the M06 family, with and without interatomic pairwise Tkatchenko Scheffler corrections. All of those are tested against the benchmark S22 set of weakly bound systems a representative larger molecular complex (dimer of NiPc molecules), and a representative dispersively bound solid (hexagonal boron nitride). For the 522 database, we also compare our results with those obtained from the pairwise correction of Grimme (DFT-D3) and nonlocal Langreth Lundqvist furtctionals (vdW-DF1 and vdW-DF2). We find that the semiempirical kinetic-energy-density dependence introduced in the M06 functionals mimics some of the nonlocal correlation needed to describe dispersion. However, long-range contributions are still missing. Pair-wise interatomic corrections, applied to conventional semilocal or hybrid functionals, or to M06 functionals, provide for a satisfactory level of accuracy irrespectively of the underlying functional. Specifically, screened-hybrid functionals such as the.Heyd Scuseria Ernzerhof (HSE) approach reduce self-interaction errors in systems possessing both localized and delocalized orbitals and can be applied to both finite and extended systems. Therefore, they serve as a useful underlying functional for dispersion corrections. [less ▲]

Dispersion-corrected Moller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory

in Journal of Chemical Physics (2009), 131

We show that the often unsatisfactory performance of Møller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory (MP2) for the dispersion interaction between closed-shell molecules can be rectified by adding a ... [more ▼]

We show that the often unsatisfactory performance of Møller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory (MP2) for the dispersion interaction between closed-shell molecules can be rectified by adding a correction Δ C n / Rn, to its long-range behavior. The dispersion-corrected MP2 (MP2+ΔvdW) results are in excellent agreement with the quantum chemistry "gold standard" [coupled cluster theory with single, double and perturbative triple excitations, CCSD(T)] for a range of systems bounded by hydrogen bonding, electrostatics and dispersion forces. The MP2+ΔvdW method is only mildly dependent on the short-range damping function and consistently outperforms state-of-the-art dispersion-corrected density-functional theory. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. [less ▲]