First-principles study of the effect of dopants (Pd, Ni) on the formation and desorption of T2O from a Li2TiO3 (001) surface

摘要

We investigated the effect of Pd and Ni dopants on the formation and desorption of tritiated water (T2O) molecules from the Li2TiO3 (001) surface using first-principles calculations coupled with the climbing-image nudged elastic band method. We calculated the energy barriers for T2O production and desorption on the pure Li2TiO3 surface to be 0.94 and 0.64 eV, respectively. The Pd and Ni dopants enhanced T2O formation by reducing the formation energy of O vacancies, and T2O generated spontaneously on the dopant surface. Moreover, we found that dopant atoms affect the charge transfer of neighboring atoms, which leads to orbital hybridization and the generation of a chemical bond between the O and T on the doped Li2TiO3 surface. In addition, desorption of T2O from the doped Li2TiO3 surface requires a relatively low energy (<0.50 eV). This theoretical study suggests that doping the Li2TiO3 surface with metal atoms is an effective strategy for producing T2O molecules and is beneficial to T release.