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Defects and their interactions in crystalline solids often underpin material properties and functionality as they are decisive for stability, result in enhanced diffusion, and act as a reservoir of vacancies. Recently, lithium-rich layered…
Transition metal (TM) oxides play an increasingly important role in technology today including applications such as catalysis, solar energy harvesting, and energy storage. In many of these applications, the details of their electronic…
Nickel-based layered oxides offer an attractive platform for the development of energy-dense cobalt-free cathodes for lithium-ion batteries but suffer from degradation via oxygen gas release during electrochemical cycling. While such…
The O vacancy (Ov) formation energy, $E_\textrm{Ov}$, is an important property of a metal-oxide, governing its performance in applications such as fuel cells or heterogeneous catalysis. These defects are routinely studied with density…
Time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) is widely used to describe electronic excitations in complex finite systems with large numbers of atoms, such as biomolecules and nanocrystals. The first part of this paper will give a simple…
The oxygen vacancy formation energy ($\Delta E_{vf}$) governs defect dynamics and is a useful metric to perform materials selection for a variety of applications. However, density functional theory (DFT) calculations of $\Delta E_{vf}$ come…
Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) play an essential role in modern optoelectronic devices through their combination of electrical conductivity and optical transparency. We review recent progress in our understanding of multi-component…
Materials exhibiting multiple stable phases can be used as functional components in electronic and optical applications if the phase transition is controllable. Group-VI transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs, MX$_2$, where M=Mo, W and X =…
The electronic structure and total energy were calculated for ordered and disordered MgO-CaO solid solutions within the multiple scattering theory in real space and the local density approximation. Based on the dependence of the total…
Lithium titanium oxide Li$_4$Ti$_5$O$_{12}$ (LTO) is an intriguing anode material promising particularly long lived batteries, due to its remarkable phase stability during (dis)charging of the cell. However, its usage is limited by its low…
This chapter illustrates the use of defect physics as a conceptual and theoretical framework for understanding and designing battery materials. It starts with a methodology for first-principles studies of defects in complex transition-metal…
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are nanoporous compounds composed of metal ions and organic linkers. MOFs play an important role in industrial applications such as gas separation, gas purification, and electrolytic catalysis. Important MOF…
We study Na ion diffusion and electrochemical performance of NaVO$_3$ (NVO) as anode material in Li/Na--ion batteries with the specific capacity of $\approx$350 mAhg$^{-1}$ at the current density 11~mAg$^{-1}$ after 300 cycles. Remarkably,…
LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4, which has a spinel framework structure, is a promising candidate for the cathode material of next-generation lithium-ion batteries with high energy density. We investigate the structural transition in LixNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (0 <= x…
Quantitative predictions of the Li intercalation voltage and of the electronic properties of rechargeable battery cathode materials are a substantial challenge for first-principles theory due to the possibility of (1) strong correlations…
Electrolyte decomposition reactions on Li-ion battery electrodes contribute to the formation of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers. These SEI layers are one of the known causes for the loss in battery voltage and capacity over…
Correlating the microstructure of an energy conversion device to its performance is often a complex exercise, notably in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) research. SOFCs combine multiple materials and interfaces that evolve in time due to high…
Patterns and periods of charge density waves (CDW) in transition metal dichalcogenides exhibit complex phase diagrams that depend on pressure, temperature, metal intercalation, or chalcogen alloying. The phase diagrams have been understood…
A deeper understanding of the cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI) formation mechanism is essential to elucidate battery degradation. Here, we combine Liquid Electrochemical Transmission Electron Microscopy (ec-TEM) with Gas…
The energetics of point defects in oxide materials plays a major role in determining their high-temperature properties, but experimental measurements are difficult, and calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) are not…