Structural and electronic properties of transition metal nanoalloys and magnetic compounds

In transition metal clusters, potentially profitable technological applications and fascinating fundamental questions are closely connected. Bimetallic nanoalloys, e.g., have become increasingly popular as their performance in catalysis is often superior to their pure counterparts. Exemplary for this are gold-platinum (Au-Pt) nanoalloys that have been used as highly potent catalysts in electrocatalysis and in a variety of oxidation reactions. However, the mere existence of Au-Pt nanoalloys is astonishing, as Au and Pt cannot be mixed in bulk over a wide range of compositions. Furthermore, how a combination of Au and Pt in nanoalloys results in their special properties has not yet been determined conclusively. It has been shown in empirical simulations and first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations that Au-Pt nanoalloys preferably arrange in a core-shell mixing pattern with Au forming a shell around a Pt core. This is in contradiction to many experimental studies that report the formation of solid solutions of Au and Pt. In the present work, this seeming discrepancy is addressed by simulating x-ray diffraction patterns that are experimentally used to characterize nanoalloys. It is shown that the interpretation of the diffraction patterns relies on questionable assumptions and therefore does not suffice as a definite characterization tool for Au-Pt nanoalloys. To shed light on the special catalytic properties of Au-Pt nanoalloys under rather different experimental conditions, a thorough investigation of their electronic and structural properties has been carried out. It is found that features favorable for catalysis in Au-Pt nanoalloys emerge as a consequence of combining two fundamental properties: Pt contributes a high density of states close to the Fermi level, which promotes chemical activity. Au increases the structural flexibility of the Au-Pt system, which might be beneficial for the formation of active and element-specific binding sites as well as regeneration of the catalyst after the reaction. Although DFT offers an attractive compromise between computational effort and accuracy for a theoretical description of Au-Pt nanoalloys, other transition metal compounds severely challenge existing DFT approximations. Manganese (Mn) doped silicon (Si) clusters represent an ideal model system to study the interaction of a single magnetic impurity with a semiconducting host both experimentally and theoretically. The transition from exohedral (lowly coordinated) to endohedral (highly coordinated) doping that occurs for Si clusters with more than ten atoms, is accompanied by complete quenching of the magnetic moment of Mn. We show that MnSi11+, the smallest endohedral cluster found in experiment, suffers strongly from a well-known general problem of most DFT approximations: the self-interaction error. Finally, a universal correlation between magnetic moment and the coordination of the Mn dopant is established that can be generalized to extended systems and suggests a route to stabilize the magnetic moment of bulk Mn-Si compounds.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Bayreuth

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Leppert, Linn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kümmel, Stephan

Repository record source_url

https://epub.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/115/

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:epub.uni-bayreuth.de:115