Predicting enthalpies of molecular substances: application to LiBH4

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Feb 1;100(4):040602. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.040602. Epub 2008 Jan 29.

Abstract

For molecular substances exhibiting harmonic and nonharmonic vibrations, we present a first-principles approach to predict enthalpy differences between phases at finite temperatures, including solid-solid and melting. We apply it to the complex hydride LiBH4. Using ab initio molecular dynamics, we predict a structure for the high-T solid phase of lithium borohydride, and we propose an approximation to account for nonharmonic vibrations. We then predict the enthalpy changes for solid-solid transition, melting, and an H-storage reaction, all in agreement with experiment.