From as small as single carbon dimers up to giant fullerenes or amorphous nanometer-sized particles, the large family of carbon nanoclusters holds a complex structural variability that increases with cluster size. Capturing this variability and predicting stable allotropes remains a challenging modelling task, crucial to advance technological applications of these materials. While small cluster sizes are traditionally investigated with first-principles methods, a comprehensive study spanning larger sizes calls for a computationally efficient alternative. Here, we combine the stochastic ab initio random structure search algorithm (AIRSS) with geometry optimisations based on interatomic potentials to systematically predict the structure of carbon clusters spanning a wide range of sizes. We first test the transferability and predictive capability of seven widely used carbon potentials, including classical and machine-learning potentials. Results are compared against an analogous cluster dataset generated via AIRSS combined with density functional theory optimizations. The best performing potential, GAP-20, is then employed to predict larger clusters in the nanometer scale, overcoming the computational limits of first-principles approaches. Our complete cluster dataset describes the evolution of topological properties with cluster size, capturing the complex variability of the carbon cluster family. As such, the dataset includes ordered and disordered structures, reproducing well-known clusters, like fullerenes, and predicting novel isomers.
This paper presents a fine example of high-throughput computational materials screening studies, mainly focusing on the carbon nanoclusters of different sizes. In the paper, a set of diverse empirical and machine-learned interatomic potentials, which are commonly used to simulate carbonaceous materials, is benchmarked against the higher-level density functional theory (DFT) data, using a range of diverse structural features as the comparison criteria.
Trying to reproduce the data presented here (even if you only consider a subset of the interaction potentials) will help you devise an understanding as to how you could approach a high-throughput structure prediction problem. Even though we concentrate here on isolated/finite nanoclusters, AIRSS (and other similar approaches like USPEX, CALYPSO, GMIN, etc.,) can also be used to predict crystal structures of different class of materials with applications in energy storage, catalysis, hydrogen storage, and so on.
The computational procedure adopted here consists of several steps: (1) generation of the input structures using AIRSS; (2) optimising the structures using empirical/ML-based interatomic potentials or DFT; (3)Analysis of the structural features using different metrics for each set of optimised structures.
The set of structures used in the analysis, analysis scripts and the AIRSS, LAMMPS, VASP input files are provided on the GitHub page. Due to licensing issues it is recommended to use Quantum Espresso or GPAW for reproducing (as closely as possible) the settings used in the DFT calculations done using VASP.
One should keep in mind that the proper and efficient analysis of large volumes of data, which requires automated scripts, is crucial but also time-taking. So I would recommend selecting one or two comparison criterion (i.e. metrics) from the lot presented in the paper. Average coordination numbers can be a convenient metric to analyse and compare the resulting structures.
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