We present a first-principles study of the temperature- and density-dependent intrinsic electrical resistivity of graphene. We use density-functional theory and density-functional perturbation theory together with very accurate Wannier interpolations to compute all electronic and vibrational properties and electron–phonon coupling matrix elements; the phonon-limited resistivity is then calculated within a Boltzmann-transport approach. An effective tight-binding model, validated against first-principles results, is also used to study the role of electron–electron interactions at the level of many-body perturbation theory. The results found are in excellent agreement with recent experimental data on graphene samples at high carrier densities and elucidate the role of the different phonon modes in limiting electron mobility. Moreover, we find that the resistivity arising from scattering with transverse acoustic phonons is 2.5 times higher than that from longitudinal acoustic phonons. Last, high-energy, optical, and zone-boundary phonons contribute as much as acoustic phonons to the intrinsic electrical resistivity even at room temperature and become dominant at higher temperatures.

We present a first-principles computational approach to calculate thermoelectric transport coefficients via the exact solution of the linearized Boltzmann transport equation, also including the effect of nonequilibrium phonon populations induced by a temperature gradient. We use density functional theory and density functional perturbation theory for an accurate description of the electronic and vibrational properties of a system, including electron-phonon interactions; carriers' scattering rates are computed using standard perturbation theory. We exploit Wannier interpolation (both for electronic bands and electron-phonon matrix elements) for an efficient sampling of the Brillouin zone, and the solution of the Boltzmann equation is achieved via a fast and stable conjugate gradient scheme. We discuss the application of this approach to $n$-doped silicon. In particular, we discuss a number of thermoelectric properties such as the thermal and electrical conductivities of electrons, the Lorenz number and the Seebeck coefficient, including the phonon drag effect, in a range of temperatures and carrier concentrations. This approach gives results in good agreement with experimental data and provides a detailed characterization of the nature and the relative importance of the individual scattering mechanisms. Moreover, the access to the exact solution of the Boltzmann equation for a realistic system provides a direct way to assess the accuracy of different flavors of relaxation time approximation, as well as of models that are popular in the thermoelectric community to estimate transport coefficients.

We present a first-principles study of the magnetotransport phenomena in $p$-doped diamond via the exact solution of the linearized Boltzmann transport equation, in which the materials' parameters, including electron-phonon and phonon-phonon interactions, are obtained from density functional theory. This approach gives results in very good agreement with a wide range of experimental data for Hall and drift mobilities, magnetoresistance, and Seebeck coefficient, including the phonon drag effect, at different temperatures and carrier concentrations. In particular, our results provide a detailed understanding of the inherent limits of the exceptionally high mobility and Seebeck coefficient, and predict a large magnetic-field-driven enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient, of up to 25% in a magnetic field of 50 kOe already at room temperature.

We present an ab initio study of the structural and electronic transport properties of tetrahedrite, ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{12}{\mathrm{Sb}}_4{\mathrm{S}}_{13}$, in its high-temperature phase. We show how this complex compound can be seen as the outcome of an ordered arrangement of S-vacancies in a semiconducting fematinite-like structure (${\mathrm{Cu}}_3{\mathrm{SbS}}_4$). Our calculations confirm that the S-vacancies are the natural doping mechanism in this thermoelectric compound and reveal a similar local chemical environment around crystallographically inequivalent Cu atoms, shedding light on the debate on x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements in this compound. To access the electrical transport properties as a function of temperature we use the Kubo-Greenwood formula applied to snapshots of first-principles molecular dynamics simulations. This approach is essential to effectively account for the interaction between electrons and lattice vibrations in such a complex crystal structure where a strong anharmonicity plays a key role in stabilizing the high-temperature phase. Our results show that the Seebeck coefficient is in good agreement with experiments and the phonon-limited electrical resistivity displays a temperature trend that compares well with a wide range of experimental data. The predicted lower bound for the resistivity turns out to be remarkably low for a pristine mineral in the Cu-Sb-S system but not too far from the lowest experimental data reported in literature. The Lorenz number turns out to be substantially lower than what is expected from the free-electron value in the Wiedemann-Franz law, thus providing an accurate way to estimate the electronic and lattice contributions to the thermal conductivity in experiments, of great significance in this very low thermal conductivity crystalline material.

In this paper we tackle the challenge of gaining control of the photophysical properties of PAHs through a site-specific N-doping within the structural aromatic framework. By developing a simple predictive tool that identifies C(sp²)-positions that if substituted with a heteroatom would tailor the changes in the absorption and emission spectral envelopes, we predict optimal substitutional patterns for the model peri-xanthenoxanthene (PXX) PAH. Specifically, TDDFT calculations of the electron density difference between the S₁ excited state and S₀ ground state of PXX allowed us to identify the subtleties in the role of sites i.e., electron donating or withdrawing character on excitation. The replacement of two C(sp²)-atoms with two N-atoms, in either electron donating or withdrawing positions, shifts the electronic transitions either to low or high energy, respectively. This consequently shifts the PXX absorption spectral envelop bathochromically or hypsochromically, as demonstrated by steady-state absorption spectroscopic measurements. Within the series of synthesised N-doped PXX, we tune the optical band gap within an interval of ∼0.4 eV, in full agreement with the theoretical predictions. Relatedly, measurements show the more blueshifted the absorption/emission energies, the greater the fluorescence quantum yield value (from ∼45% to ∼75%). On the other hand, electrochemical investigations suggested that the N-pattern has a limited influence on the redox properties. Lastly, depending on the N-pattern, different supramolecular organisations could be obtained at the solid-state, with the 1,7-pattern PXX molecule forming multi-layered, graphene-like, supramolecular sheets through a combination of weak H-bonding and π–π stacking interactions. Supramolecular striped patterned sheets could also be formed with the 3,9- and 4,10-congeners when co-crystallized with a halogen-bond donor molecule.