Computational studies of cation and anion ordering in cubic yttria stabilized zirconia

The investigation of ordering and phase stability in the ZrO2-Y203 system involves two sets of calculations. The first set of calculations uses the cluster expansion method. A guide to the practical implementation of the cluster expansion outlines methods for defining a goal and choosing structures and clusters that best model the system of interest. The cluster expansion of the yttria stabilized zirconia system considers 447 configurations across the ZrO2-Y203 composition range. The effective cluster interaction for pair clusters show electrostatic repulsion between anions and little interaction between cations. Triplet anion terms largely modify the energy contributions of the pair terms. Separate cluster expansions using structures at single compositions show that cation clusters become more important at high yttria composition. The cluster expansion led to the discovery of three previously unidentified ordered ground state structures at 25, 29, and 33 % Y on the cubic fluorite lattice. The ground state with 33 % Y is stable with respect to the calculated energies of monoclinic ZrO2 and the Y4Zr3012 ground state. The ground states have the common ordering feature of yttrium and vacancies in [1 1 2] chains, and Monte Carlo simulations show that vacancy ordering upon cooling is contingent on cation ordering.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Predith, Ashley P. (Ashley Page)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gerbrand Ceder.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36208

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36208