| We employ density functional theory in a computational study of two energy storage systems.;In the first, we explore the thermodynamic viability of light metal hydrides as a high capacity Li-ion battery negative electrode. Given a set of solid-state and gas-phase reactants, we have determined the phase diagram in the Li-Mg-B-N-H system in the grand canonical ensemble as a function of lithium electrochemical potential. We present computational results for several new conversion reactions with predicted capacities between 2400 and 4000 mAhg-1 that are thermodynamically favorable and that do not involve gas evolution. We provide experimental evidence for the reaction pathway on delithiation for the compound Li4BN3H10 and compare with our theoretical prediction. The maximum volume increase for these materials on lithium insertion is significantly smaller than that for Si, whose 400% expansion hinders its cyclability.;In the second study, we attempt to gain understanding of recent experimental results of lithium borohydride nanoconfined in highly ordered nanoporous carbon. The carbon environment is modeled as a single sheet of graphene, and adsorption energies are calculated for nanoparticles of the constituent phases of LiBH 4 desorption processes (LiBH4, LiH, lithium and boron). We find good agreement with previous studies of a single lithium atom adsorbed onto graphene. We predict that infiltrated LiBH4 will decompose such that boron is trapped in carbon vacancies, and that the resulting boron doping is required to achieve negative wetting energies for the remaining LiBH4. Desorption enthalpies are found to increase with shrinking cluster sizes, suggesting that the observed lowering of desorption temperatures is a kinetic effect although interactions with the carbon surface itself are predicted to have an overall effect of decreasing the desorption enthalpy . |
