Calculation of electronic structure and mechanical properties of DO3–Fe75-xSi25Nix intermetallic compounds by first principles

Abstract

Based on the density functional theory (DFT), the plane-wave pseudopotential method was used to investigate the electronic structures and mechanical properties of DO 3– Fe 75-x Si 25 Ni x(x = 0, 3.125, 6.25 and 9.375) intermetallic compounds. The elastic parameters were calculated, and then the bulk modulus, shear modulus and elastic modulus were derived. The paper then focuses on the discussion of ductility and plasticity. The results show that by adding appropriate Ni to Fe 3 Si intermetallic compound can improve the ductility. But the hardness will increase when the Ni content exceeds 6.25%. Analysis of density of states (DOS) and overlap populations indicates that with the difference of the strength of bonding and activity, there were some differences of ductility among different Ni contents. The Fe 71.875 Ni 3.125 Si 25 has the lowest hardness because the covalent bonding (Fe–Si bond and Si–Ni bond) has the minimum covalent electrons.