Structures and Electronic Properties of Ni–Al Alloy Clusters from First-Principles Calculations

Abstract

Using the density functional theory calculations with the PBE exchange–correlation energy functional, we have studied the low-energy structures and electronic properties of Ni–Al alloy clusters for adsorbing or doping an aluminum atom to Ni_n (n = 13, 19, 23, 26, 29 and 55) clusters. The most stable structures of Ni_nAl are viewed as adding an Al atom at the hollow triangle and rhombus site of the icosahedron (n = 13, 55) and double-icosahedron (n = 19, 23, 26 and 29) structures, respectively. For Ni_n−1Al, it can be seen that an Al atom gradually moves from surface (n = 13, 19, 23 and 26) to the interior site (n = 29, 55) in the most stable structures. The electronic properties of the Ni–Al alloy clusters including binding energies, magnetic properties, charge transfer and density of states have also been studied.