The effect of Al and Cr elements on the oxidation resistance of MoSi_2 via first-principles calculation

The properties of structure, energy and oxidation resistance of interstitial and substitutable MoSi_2 systems have been investigated using the density functional theory. The calculated lattice constants for pristine MoSi_2 confirm the early experimental results. In the interstitial MoSi_2, the impurity energy of O atom was computed for the stable interstitial site in the systems. The results reveal that the O atom prefers to occupy the Oct2 site with the lowest impurity energy. In the substitution MoSi_2, the Si sites tend to be substituted with Al and Cr atoms,whereas, Mo sites do not behave like the Si sites. The co-substitution of Al/Cr atoms and the direction of the O diffusion in MoSi_2 have been analyzed as well. The results from electronic structural analysis indicate that the SiO bond is the main factor to inhibit the diffusion of O, and the alloying elements of Al and Cr contribute to the oxidation resistance of MoSi_2.