Propriedades estruturais e eletrônicas de clusters de (TiO₂)_n e (CeO₂)_n, n = 1-15, usando a teoria do funcional da densidade

Abstract

The use of transition metal dioxides in technological applications is wide spread, because these compounds have important characteristics of semiconductors. Although there a large number of theoretical and experimental studies, the acknowledgement about the structural and electronic properties these compounds are not yet satisfactory, especially when studying clusters. Clusters can be defined as an embryonic phase of matter, because they are particles that contain a very small number of atoms in comparison with macroscopic particles. So, the structural and electronic properties are very distinct of the material crystalline phase, when allow the development of new materials in technological applications. Therefore a large interest exist in understanding the structural and electronic properties of clusters. In this master's degree project we have as objective to study the electronic and structural properties of TiO 2 and CeO 2 clusters, using first principle calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT). One of the main problems in the study of clusters is to determine the atomic structure, due the experimental difficult of work with so small particles. Thus, a great challenge was to determine the atomic structures of these two different transition metal dioxides, considering that our group (QTnano), has a large knowledge in the development and implementation of global optimization algorithms. Due the difficulty involved in studying small particles, we were restricted to the clusters of composition (MO 2) n , with n = 1−15. In other words, our largest clusters have 45 atoms and a diameter smaller than 3 nm. Along with securing the structures, we realize the study of electronic, energetic and vibrational properties to each generated composition, providing an understanding of electronic effects in the atomic structure of clusters.