Electronic structure of vanadyl pyrophosphate: cluster model studies

Atomic-Scale Understanding of Structure and Properties of Complex Pyrophosphate Crystals by First-Principles Calculations

The electronic structure and mechanical and optical properties of five pyrophosphate crystals with very complex structures are studied by first principles density functional theory calculations. The results show the complex interplay of the minor differences in specific local structures and compositions can result in large differences in reactivity and interaction that are rare in other classes of inorganic crystals. These are discussed by dividing the pyrophosphate crystals into three structural units. H2P2O7 is the most important and dominating unit in pyrophosphates. The other two are the influential cationic group with metals and water molecules. The strongest P-O bond in P2O5 is the strongest bond for crystal cohesion, but O-H and N-H bonds also play an important part. Different type of bonding between O and H atoms such as O-H, hydrogen bonding, and bridging bonds are present. Metallic cations such as Mg, Zn, and Cu form octahedral bonding with O. The water molecule provides the unique H∙∙∙O bonds, and metallic elements can influence the structure and bonding to a certain extent. The two Cu-containing phosphates show the presence of narrow metallic bands near the valence band edge. All this complex bonding affects their physical properties, indicating that fundamental understanding remains an open question.

Complex interplay of interatomic bonding in a multi-component pyrophosphate crystal: K2Mg (H2P2O7)2·2H2O

The electronic structure and interatomic bonding of pyrophosphate crystal K₂Mg (H₂P₂O₇)₂·2H₂O are investigated for the first time showing complex interplay of different types of bindings. The existing structure from single-crystal X-ray diffraction is not sufficiently refined, resulting in unrealistic short O─H bonds which is rectified by high-precision density functional theory (DFT) calculation. K₂Mg (H₂P₂O₇)₂·2H₂O has a direct gap of 5.22 eV and a small electron effective mass of 0.14 m_e. Detailed bond analysis between every pair of atoms reveals the complexity of various covalent, ionic, hydrogen bonding and bridging bonding and their sensitive dependence on structural differences. The K--O bonds are much weaker than Mg--O bonds and contributions from the hydrogen bonds are non-negligible. Quantitative analysis of internal cohesion in terms of total bond order density and partial bond order density divulges the relative importance of different types of bonding. The calculated optical absorptions show multiple peaks and a sharp Plasmon peak at 23 eV and a refractive index of 1.44. The elastic and mechanical properties show features unique to this low-symmetry crystal. Phonon calculation gives vibrational frequencies in agreement with reported Raman spectrum. These results provide new insights indicating that acidic pyrophosphates could have a variety of unrealized applications in advanced technology.

Electronic Properties of the Active Sites Present at the (011) Surface of MoO2

The DFT method was used to describe the electronic structure of the catalytically interesting (011) surface of molybdenum dioxide, with attention being particularly focused on the properties of the active sites, both molybdenum and oxygen, present at this surface. In addition, a comparison of (011)MoO2 and (100)MoO3 surfaces was undertaken since both surfaces contain not only differently coordinated oxygen sites but also the bare molybdenum centres. The electronic structures of both surfaces were obtained using the cluster method and DFT approach. The local properties of the different surface sites exposed at the (011)MoO2 surface, viz. five- and six-fold coordinated Mo atoms and nucleophilic O sites with different coordination numbers, have been discussed using charge densities, bond-order indices and molecular orbital diagrams.

Exchange interactions in the three phases of vanadyl pyrophosphate (VO)(2)P(2)O(7)

The magnetic exchange constants of vanadyl pyrophosphate (VO)(2)P(2)O(7) have been calculated on the basis of a combined DFT/broken symmetry approach. The three reported phases, ambient-pressure orthorhombic, ambient-pressure monoclinic, and high-pressure orthorhombic, have been explicitly considered. Calculations have been performed on four types of model clusters extracted from the crystal lattices. The singularity of each phase is clearly reflected through the number and values of exchange parameters. Our results show that the exchange interactions can be described in first approximation within the alternating antiferromagnetic chain model. The largest exchange coupling along the chain occurs through O-P-O bridges. The interchain interactions are much weaker and are of ferromagnetic nature.