Stability of alkali-metal hydrides: effects of n-type doping*

Metal hydrides could be considered ideal solid-state hydrogen storage systems, they have light weight and high hydrogen volumetric densities, but the hydrogen desorption process requires excessively high temperatures due to their high stability. Efforts have been performed to improve their dehydrogenation properties, based on the introduction of defects, impurities and doping. We present a systematic study of the n-type (electronic) doping effects on the stability of two alkali-metal hydrides: Na$_{1-x}$Mg$_{x}$H and Li$_{1-x}$Be$_{x}$H. These systems have been studied within the framework of density functional perturbation theory, using a mixed-basis pseudopotential method and the self-consistent version of the virtual crystal approximation to model the doping. The full-phonon dispersions are analyzed for several doping content, paying special attention to the crystal stability. It is found a doping content threshold for each system, where they are close to dynamical instabilities, which are related to charge redistribution in interstitial zones. Applying the quasiharmonic approximation, the vibrational free energy, the linear thermal expansion and heat capacities are obtained for both hydrides systems and are analyzed as a function of the doping content.