TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) are nowadays considered fundamental building blocks for many technological applications. Morphology is found to play a key role with spherical NPs presenting higher binding properties and chemical activity. From the experimental point of view, the characterization of these nano-objects is extremely complex, opening a large room for computational investigations. In this work, TiO2 spherical NPs of different sizes (from 300 to 4000 atoms) have been studied with a two-scale computational approach. Global optimization to obtain stable and equilibrated nanospheres was performed with a self-consistent charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) simulated annealing process, causing a considerable atomic rearrangement within the nanospheres. Those SCC-DFTB relaxed structures have been then optimized at the DFT(B3LYP) level of theory. We present a systematic and comparative SCC-DFTB vs DFT(B3LYP) study of the structural properties, with particular emphasis on the surface-to-bulk sites ratio, coordination distribution of surface sites, and surface energy. From the electronic point of view, we compare HOMO-LUMO and Kohn-Sham gaps, total and projected density of states. Overall, the comparisons between DFTB and hybrid density functional theory show that DFTB provides a rather accurate geometrical and electronic description of these nanospheres of realistic size (up to a diameter of 4.4 nm) at an extremely reduced computational cost. This opens for new challenges in simulations of very large systems and more extended molecular dynamics.

Selli, D., Fazio, G., Di Valentin, C. (2017). Modelling realistic TiO2 nanospheres: A benchmark study of SCC-DFTB against hybrid DFT. THE JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, 147(16) [10.1063/1.4994165].

Modelling realistic TiO2 nanospheres: A benchmark study of SCC-DFTB against hybrid DFT

Selli, Daniele
Primo
;
Fazio, Gianluca
Secondo
;
Di Valentin, Cristiana
Ultimo
2017

Abstract

TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) are nowadays considered fundamental building blocks for many technological applications. Morphology is found to play a key role with spherical NPs presenting higher binding properties and chemical activity. From the experimental point of view, the characterization of these nano-objects is extremely complex, opening a large room for computational investigations. In this work, TiO2 spherical NPs of different sizes (from 300 to 4000 atoms) have been studied with a two-scale computational approach. Global optimization to obtain stable and equilibrated nanospheres was performed with a self-consistent charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) simulated annealing process, causing a considerable atomic rearrangement within the nanospheres. Those SCC-DFTB relaxed structures have been then optimized at the DFT(B3LYP) level of theory. We present a systematic and comparative SCC-DFTB vs DFT(B3LYP) study of the structural properties, with particular emphasis on the surface-to-bulk sites ratio, coordination distribution of surface sites, and surface energy. From the electronic point of view, we compare HOMO-LUMO and Kohn-Sham gaps, total and projected density of states. Overall, the comparisons between DFTB and hybrid density functional theory show that DFTB provides a rather accurate geometrical and electronic description of these nanospheres of realistic size (up to a diameter of 4.4 nm) at an extremely reduced computational cost. This opens for new challenges in simulations of very large systems and more extended molecular dynamics.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
TiO2 nanoparticles; simulated annealing; DFT calculations; SCC-DFTB; global optimization.
English
2017
147
16
164701
none
Selli, D., Fazio, G., Di Valentin, C. (2017). Modelling realistic TiO2 nanospheres: A benchmark study of SCC-DFTB against hybrid DFT. THE JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, 147(16) [10.1063/1.4994165].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/176260
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