Temperature dependent phase stability of nanolaminated ternaries from first-principles calculations

Methods based on first-principles calculations have proven effective for predicting the thermodynamic stability of materials that have not previously been considered. However, the vast majority of these predictions are based on 0 K calculations, which means that little is known about the effects of temperature on their accuracy. This causes considerable uncertainty with respect to stability predictions of new hypothetical phases. s work we combine first-principles calculations with an optimization procedure to calculate the phase stability as a function of temperature for Ti2AlC, Ti3AlC2 and Ti4AlC3 MAX phases with respect to their most competing phases in the Ti–Al–C phase diagram, in a temperature interval from 0 to 2000 K. To model nonzero temperatures, we include effects from the electronic and vibrational free energies to the Gibbs free energy for all relevant competing phases. We show that, due to a mutual cancellation of the temperature dependent energy terms, the results of neither the harmonic nor the quasiharmonic calculations differ significantly from the calculated 0 K formation energies. We thus provide a plausible explanation for the success of previous 0 K predictions, an explanation which also serves as evidence for the hypothesis that the phase stability in many materials systems is primarily governed by the 0 K energy terms.