Density functional theory (DFT) within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) is known to poorly reproduce the experimental properties of liquid water. The poor description of the dispersion forces in the exchange correlation functionals is one of the possible causes. Recent studies have demonstrated an improvement in the simulated properties when they are taken into account. We present here a study of the effects on liquid water of the recently proposed semi-empirical correction of Grimme et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 132, 154104 (2010)]. The difference between standard and corrected DFT-GGA simulations is rationalized with a detailed analysis upon modifying an accurate parameterised potential. This allows an estimate of the typical range of dispersion forces in water. We also show that the structure and diffusivity of ambient-like liquid water are sensitive to the fifth neighbor position, thus highlighting the key role played by this neighbor. Our study is extended to water at supercritical conditions, where experimental and theoretical results are much more scarce. We show that the semi-empirical correction by Grimme et al. improves significantly, although somewhat counter-intuitively, both the structural and the dynamical description of supercritical water.

We investigate the structural and vibrational properties of glassy B2O3 using first-principles molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, we determine the boroxol rings fraction f for which there is still no consensus in the literature. Two numerical models containing either a low or a high level of boroxol rings are tested against a gamut of experimental probes (static structure factor, Raman, 11B and 17O NMR data). We show that only the boroxol-rich model (f=75%) can reproduce the full set of observables. Total-energy calculations show that at the glass density, boroxol-rich structures are favored by about 6 kcal/(mol boroxol). Finally, the liquid state is explored in the 2,000-4,000 K range and a reduction of f to 10%-20% is obtained.

We study high-pressure polyamorphism of B2O3 glass using x-ray diffraction up to 10 GPa in the 300-700 K temperature range, in situ volumetric measurements up to 9 GPa, and first-principles simulations. Under pressure, glass undergoes two-stage transformations including a gradual increase of the first B-O (O-B) coordination numbers above 5 GPa. The fraction of boron atoms in the fourfold-coordinated state at P<10 GPa is smaller than was assumed from inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy data, but is considerably larger than was previously suggested by the classical molecular dynamics simulations. The observed transformations under both compression and decompression are broad in hydrostatic conditions. On the basis of ab initio results, we also predict one more transformation to a superdense phase, in which B atoms are sixfold coordinated.

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The method of in situ high-pressure neutron diffraction is used to investigate the structure of B 2 O 3 glass on compression in the range from ambient to 17.5(5) GPa. The experimental results are supplemented by molecular dynamics simulations made using a newly developed aspherical ion model. The results tie together those obtained from other experimental techniques to reveal three densification regimes. In the first, BO 3 triangles are the predominant structural motifs as the pressure is increased from ambient to 6.3(5) GPa, but there is an alteration to the intermediate range order which is associated with the dissolution of boroxol rings. In the second, BO 4 motifs replace BO 3 triangles at pressures beyond 6.3 GPa and the dissolution of boroxol rings continues until it is completed at 11-14 GPa. In the third, the B-O coordination number continues to increase with pressure to give a predominantly tetrahedral glass, a process that is completed at a pressure in excess of 22.5 GPa. On recovery of the glass to ambient from a pressure of 8.2 GPa, triangular BO 3 motifs are recovered but, relative to the uncompressed material, there is a change to the intermediate range order. The comparison between experiment and simulation shows that the aspherical ion model is able to provide results of unprecedented accuracy at pressures up to at least 10 GPa.

Despite the simplicity of its molecular unit, water is a challenging system because of its uniquely rich polymorphism and predicted but yet unconfirmed features. Introducing a novel space of generalized coordinates that capture changes in the topology of the interatomic network, we are able to systematically track transitions among liquid, amorphous and crystalline forms throughout the whole phase diagram of water, including the nucleation of crystals above and below the melting point. Our approach, based on molecular dynamics and enhanced sampling / free energy calculation techniques, is not specific to water and could be applied to very different structural phase transitions, paving the way towards the prediction of kinetic routes connecting polymorphic structures in a range of materials. PACS numbers:Computational structure prediction methods [1, 2] have strongly contributed to the rapid increase of new predicted phases of materials with enhanced properties for applications (see, e.g., Ref. [3]). However, at present, no general approach has been developed for guiding experiments through the pathways connecting stable structures of condensed matter. Moreover, metastable phases are very often involved in phase transitions [4] and sometimes their kinetic stability is very high [5]. Thus, in order to recover the global minimum structure, one needs to find specific routes, by e.g. acting on pressure or temperature, in a way that is not at all trivial to guess [6]. A precise understanding of transition mechanisms and the corresponding kinetics is therefore the key to explain and control the behavior of matter. The case of water is emblematic because several experiments have disclosed connections between stable and metastable phases [7][8][9][10] and recently simulations have highlighted the importance of metastable states in understanding the mechanism of phase transitions and related transformations [11]. A classic example is the connection between the crystalline ice stable at ambient pressure (Ice I), and the low-density amorphous (LDA) and high-density amorphous (HDA) ices: by compressing Ice I up to 10 kbar at ≈ 80 K one obtains HDA instead of Ice VI, [12] , a simulation method that yields the atomic trajectories as a function of time at given thermodynamic conditions, is in principle able to track such transitions. The kinetic barriers are however generally too large to allow an efficient exploration of the configuration space within typical MD timescales. Hence, so far it has been necessary to introduce (i) simplistic interaction models [14] and/or (ii) seeding techniques [15]. Another approach consists in using enhanced sampling techniques that accelerate the occurrence of rare events by focusing on low-dimensional order parameters, also called collective variables (CV) [16]. Yet the CVs available to describe phase transitions are specifically designed for a given type of structural transformation [17][18][19], while no general CV scheme has been proven successful for a wide class of problems, in parti...

Understanding the conditions which favor crystallisation or vitrification of liquids has been a long-standing scientific problem [1][2][3]. Another connected, and not yet well understood question is the relationship between the glassy and the various possible crystalline forms a system may adopt [4,5]. In this context, B2O3 is a puzzling case of study since i) it is one of the best glass-forming systems despite an apparent lack of lowpressure polymorphism ii) it vitrifies in a glassy form abnormally different from the only known crystalline phase at ambient pressure [6] iii) it never crystallises from the melt unless pressure is applied, an intriguing behaviour known as the crystallisation anomaly [7][8][9]. Here, by means of ab-initio calculations, we discover the existence of novel B2O3 crystalline polymorphs with structural properties similar to the glass and formation energies comparable to the known ambient crystal. The resulting configurational degeneracy drives the system vitrification at ambient pressure. The degeneracy is lifted under pressure, unveiling the origin of the crystallisation anomaly. This work reconciles the behaviour of B2O3 with that from other glassy systems and reaffirms the role played by polymorphism in a system's ability to vitrify [10,11]. Some of the predicted crystals are cage-like materials entirely made of three-fold rings, opening new perspectives for the synthesis of boron-based nanoporous materials. PACS numbers:Polymorphism, the possibility for a substance to form several distinct crystalline phases of identical composition, is observed for a wide range of materials. This phenomenon has tremendous importance not only per se for understanding the crystallisation process but also because of practical implications such as the design and control of new materials with specific properties [12], a major issue for the pharmaceutical industry [13]. Indeed, the ability of molecular units to pack in various ways generates crystal phases which generally differ in their physical properties and cohesive energies. Another important implication of polymorphism is related to the glassy state: as pointed out earlier [10,11], glass formation is often prevalent for those materials which are found in a variety of crystalline forms. An obvious example is silica (SiO 2 ), the archetypal glass-former, which at low pressure is found as quartz, cristobalite, keatite, tridymite, coesite and moganite [14]. The existence of these many polytypes illustrate that the structural units, here the SiO 4 tetrahedra, can occur in several conformations with little difference in strain energy, allowing for the possibility of metastable states [14]. The ease of glass formation is usually understood as the result of the system frustration associated to the presence of many minima of comparable energy in the crystal energy landscape (CEL). In the context of organic chemistry, it has also been observed that systems with many almost equi-energetic structures containing a common interchangeable motif, correlate with a t...

Using high energy x-ray diffraction, the structure factors of glassy and molten B2O3 were measured with high signal-to-noise, up to a temperature of T  =  1710(20) K. The observed systematic changes with T are shown to be consistent with the dissolution of hexagonal [B3O6] boroxol rings, which are abundant in the glass, whilst the high-T (>~1500 K) liquid can be more closely described as a random network structure based on [BO3] triangular building blocks. We therefore argue that diffraction data are in fact qualitatively sensitive to the presence of small rings, and support the existence of a continuous structural transition in molten B2O3, for which the temperature evolution of the 808 cm−1 Raman scattering band (boroxol breathing mode) has long stood as the most emphatic evidence. Our conclusions are supported by both first-principles and polarizable ion model molecular dynamics simulations which are capable of giving good account of the experimental data, so long as steps are taken to ensure a ring fraction similar to that expected from Raman spectroscopy. The mean thermal expansion of the B-O bond has been measured directly to be αBO  =  3.7(2)  ×  10−6 K−1, which accounts for a few percent of the bulk expansion just above the glass transition temperature, but accounts for greater than one third of the bulk expansion at temperatures in excess of 1673 K.