Ab initio calculations of mechanical, thermodynamic and electronic structure properties of mullite, iota-alumina and boron carbide

The alumino-silicate solid solution series (Al 4+2xSi2-2 xO10-x) is an important class of ceramics. Except for the end member (x=0), Al2 SiO5 the crystal structures of the other phases, called mullite, have partially occupied sites. Stoichiometric supercell models for the four mullite phases 3Al2O 3 · 2SiO2 · 2Al 2O3 · SiO2, 4 Al2O3· SiO 2, 9Al2O3 · SiO2, and iota-Al2 O3 (iota-alumina) are constructed starting from experimentally reported crystal structures. A large number of models were built for each phase and relaxed using the Vienna ab initio simulation package (VASP) program. The model with the lowest total energy for a given x was chosen as the representative structure for that phase. Electronic structure and mechanical properties of mullite phases were studied via first-principles calculations.;Of the various phases of transition alumina, iota-Al 2O3 is the least well known. In addition structural details have not, until now, been available. It is the end member of the aluminosilicate solid solution series with x=1. Based on a high alumina content mullite phase, a structural model for iota- Al2O3 is constructed. The simulated x-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of this model agrees well with a measured XRD pattern. The iota-Al2 O3 is a highly disordered ultra-low-density phase of alumina with a theoretical density of 2854kg/m3. Using this theoretically constructed model, elastic, thermodynamic, electronic, and spectroscopic properties of iota-Al2 O3 have been calculated and compared it with those of alpha- Al2O3 and gamma- Al2O3.;Boron carbide (B4C) undergoes an amorphization under high velocity impacts. The mechanism of amorphization is not clear. Ab initio methods are used to carry out large-scale uniaxial compression simulations on two polytypes of stoichiometric boron carbide (B4C), B 11C-CBC, and B12- CCC where B11C or B12 is the 12-atom icosahedron and CBC or CCC is the three-atom chain. The simulations were performed on large supercells of 180 atoms. Simulated results indicate bending of the three-atom chain leads to the amorphization of the B 11C-CBC (B12-CCC ) at a uniaxial strain s=0.23 (0.22) and with a maximum stress of 168 (151) GPa. The mechanism of amorphization is analyzed with radial pair distribution function (RPDF), total density of states (TDOS), and the distribution of effective charges on atoms.