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Pingyang Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Pingyang Zhang.

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MinSurf: resolving the atomic-scale stability landscape of mineral surfaces

Mineral surfaces govern interfacial reactivity in carbon mineralization, geo-energy storage, contaminant immobilization, heterogeneous catalysis and electrochemical interface engineering. Yet atomistic simulations often rely on commonly used facets or facet-level stability criteria, while distinct atomic terminations of the same crystallographic orientation are rarely resolved systematically because experimental characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations remain costly across large surface spaces. Here we present MinSurf, a high-throughput framework that resolves mineral surface selection as a surface-energy and morphology problem. MinSurf integrates surface enumeration, DFT labelling, machine-learning interatomic potentials and Wulff construction to predict stable terminations, surface-energy landscapes and equilibrium crystal morphologies. Applied to ten representative minerals, MinSurfSet comprises 764 surface slabs, with 90 corresponding oriented unit cells constructed as bulk references for surface-energy evaluation. The resulting MinNEP model predicts DFT surface energies with a mean absolute error of 0.0119 eV per Angstrom squared and achieves an overall acceleration of 1.14 x 10^4 relative to DFT. MinNEP preserves the DFT-derived morphology-determining surface-energy hierarchy and reproduces the dominant Wulff-exposed facets, while X-ray diffraction provides an independent crystallographic consistency check for alpha-quartz benchmark. By linking atomic terminations, surface energies and equilibrium morphologies, MinSurf provides reproducible and physically representative surface models for high-throughput simulations of mineral interfaces across energy, environmental and advanced inorganic materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Unveiling Mechanisms of SEI Formation and Sodium Loss in Sodium Batteries via Interface Reactor Sampling

The solid electrolyte interphase SEI critically dictates the cyclability and Coulombic efficiency of sodium-metal batteries, yet its dynamic formation mechanisms and atomic-scale evolution during electrochemical cycling remain elusive due to the spatiotemporal limitations of existing techniques. Here, an "Interface Reactor" sampling strategy is proposed to construct a charge-aware neuroevolution potential (qNEP). This approach overcomes the instability bottlenecks of conventional machine learning potentials, enabling stable, first-principles-accurate molecular dynamics simulations of complex electrode-electrolyte interfaces on the hundred-nanosecond scale. Fundamentally distinct SEI formation mechanisms are revealed during the early stage: carbonate-based electrolytes form heterogeneous organic-inorganic matrices via "mixed co-formation," whereas ether-based electrolytes generate dense, self-limiting inorganic barriers through "surface-energy-controlled" NaF crystallization. Metadynamics simulations further elucidate that these compositional disparities govern sodium-ion storage dynamics: NaF-rich SEIs facilitate efficient metallic deposition, while carbonate-dominated interphases induce irreversible sodium trapping and continuous electrolyte decomposition. These findings establish a comprehensive atomic-scale framework linking solvation structure, interfacial reaction networks, and electrochemical performance, providing mechanistic guidelines for rational SEI engineering in next-generation alkali-metal batteries. Crucially, a general and robust computational framework is established for simulating complex interfacial reactions in electrochemical systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci