Structural, electronic, elastic and thermodynamic properties of Li2ZrO3: A comprehensive study using DFT formalism

Lithium zirconate is considered to be potential tritium breeder material for fusion reactors. Here I report a comprehensive study on structural, electronic, elastic, and thermodynamic properties of Li2ZrO3 using plane wave based density functional theory. While the electron-ion interaction term has been described by projected-augmented wave method, the exchange-correlation energy was taken care of through generalized gradient approximation scheme. The optimized lattice and internal parameters of Li2ZrO3 unit cell agree well within ±1-2% from the experimental values. From the electronic structure analysis it is seen that the Fermi energy has significant contribution from the 2s, 2p and 4d orbitals of Li, O and Zr atoms, respectively. Elastic property calculation of Li2ZrO3 showed mechanical stability and anisotropy at ambient pressure. The formation energy (ΔfH) of Li2ZrO3 at 0 K, after zero point energy correction, has been estimated to be −1550 kJ/mol. The temperature dependent thermodynamic functions of Li2ZrO3 have also been calculated from the Debye-Grüneisen quasi-harmonic approximation and reported here.