Paper PII-6

FIRST-PRINCIPLES CALCULATION OF THE PHASE DIAGRAM OF Cu-Li SYSTEM

 

Van De Walle Axel1, Moser Zbigniew2  and Gšsior Władysław2

 

          1Northwestern University,Evanson,Il ,USA

      2 Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science,Polish Academy of

         Sciences, Kraków 30-059, Reymonta 25, Poland   

 

We present first-principles calculations of the solid-state portion of the Cu-Li phase diagram based on the cluster expansion formalism coupled with the use of bond length-dependent transferable force constant to model of vibrational disorder  and lattice gaz  Monte  Carlo simulations to model configurational disorder. These calculations help settle the existence of additional phases in the Cu-Li phase diagram that have been postulated, but not yet clearly established. Our calculations predict the presence of at least one additional phase  and the associated predicted phase transitions are consistent with our electrochemical measurements, which exhibit clear plateaus in the electromotive force-composition curve. While cluster expansions for both the bcc and fcc lattices in this system indicate an ordering tendency, we find that any ordered phase fully disorders below the temperature where the electrochemical measurements were made. Instead, our calculations indicate that phase transitions between the bcc and fcc solid solutions are at the origin of the plateaus in the measured electromotive force as a  function of composition.