Batteries are pivotal components in overcoming some of today's greatest technological challenges. Yet to date there is no self-consistent atomistic description of a complete battery. We take first steps toward modeling of a battery as a whole microscopically. Our focus lies on phenomena occurring at the electrode-electrolyte interface which are not easily studied with other methods. We use the redox split-charge equilibration (redoxSQE) method that assigns a discrete ionization state to each atom. Along with exchanging partial charges across bonds, atoms can swap integer charges. With redoxSQE we study the discharge behavior of a nano-battery, and demonstrate that this reproduces the generic properties of a macroscopic battery qualitatively. Examples are the dependence of the battery's capacity on temperature and discharge rate, as well as performance degradation upon recharge.
@article{arxiv.1308.3424,
title = {Redox reactions with empirical potentials: Atomistic battery discharge simulations},
author = {Wolf B. Dapp and Martin H. Müser},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.3424},
year = {2013}
}