First-principles investigations of elastic stability and electronic structure of cubic platinum carbide under pressure

Abstract

The authors have presented a detailed investigation on the phase stabilities and electronic properties of ideal stoichiometric platinum carbide (PtC) in the rock-salt (RS) and zinc-blende (ZB) structures under high pressure. Theoretical calculations are performed using the first-principles pseudopotential density functional method, in which we employ the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) of the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof form and local density approximation (LDA) of Ceperly and Adler parameterized by Perdew and Zunger together with plane-wave basis sets for expanding the periodic electron density. Through a series of tests, such as the total energy as a function of volume, the Gibbs free energy as a function of pressure, the P-V equation of states, the elastic stabilities, and the electronic band structures of PtC with ZB and RS phases, we have confirmed that the recently synthesized compound PtC is crystallized in the ZB structure at zero pressure and that the RS structure is a high-pressure phase; the phase transition studied from the usual condition of equal enthalpies occurs at the pressures of 46.6 and 46.5 GPa for GGA and LDA calculations, respectively. Our conclusions are consistent with the theoretical prediction obtained from the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method, but are reversed with the DAC experimental results and other pseudopotential plane-wave theoretical results. Therefore, the experimental observation of the RS structure in PtC remains a puzzle, and our study indicates that further experimental and theoretical investigations need to be carried out to find the cause of the stability of the PtC.