Low-Energy Polymeric Phases of Alanates

Tran Doan Huan, Maximilian Amsler, Miguel A. L. Marques, Silvana Botti, Alexander Willand, Stefan Goedecker
2013 Physical Review Letters  
Low-energy structures of alanates are currently known to be described by patterns of isolated, nearly ideal tetrahedral [AlH_4] anions and metal cations. We discover that the novel polymeric motif recently proposed for LiAlH_4 plays a dominant role in a series of alanates, including LiAlH_4, NaAlH_4, KAlH_4, Mg(AlH_4)_2, Ca(AlH_4)_2 and Sr(AlH_4)_2. In particular, most of the low-energy structures discovered for the whole series are characterized by networks of corner-sharing [AlH_6] octahedra,
more » ... forming wires and/or planes throughout the materials. Finally, for Mg(AlH_4)_2 and Sr(AlH_4)_2, we identify two polymeric phases to be lowest in energy at low temperatures.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.110.135502 pmid:23581335 fatcat:5yqaq7xzwzfxtgcnzustxz5o4q