Ab-initio study of structural, vibrational and optical properties of solid oxidizers

We report the structural, elastic and vibrational properties of five ionic-molecular solid oxidizers MNO3 (M = Li, Na, K) and MClO3 (M = Na, K). By treating long range electron-correlation effects, dispersion corrected method leads to more accurate predictions of structural properties and phase stability of KNO3 polymorphs. The obtained elastic moduli show soft nature of these materials and are consistent with Ultrasonic Pulse Echo measurements. We made a complete assignment of vibrational modes which are in good accord with available experimental results. From calculated IR and Raman spectra, it is found that the vibrational frequencies show a red-shift from Li → Na → K (Na → K) and N → Cl for nitrates (chlorates) due to increase in mass of metal and non-metal atoms, respectively. The calculated electronic structure using recently developed Tran-Blaha modified Becke-Johnson potential show that the materials are wide band gap insulators with predominant ionic bonding between M+ (metal) and NO3−/ClO3− ions and covalent bonding (NO and ClO) within nitrate and chlorate anionic group. From the calculated optical spectra, we observe that electric-dipole transitions are due to nitrate/chlorate group below 20 eV and cationic transitions occur above 20 eV. The calculated reflectivity spectra are consistent with the available experimental measurements.