A comprehensive study of the physical properties of Nb2P5 via ab-initio technique

Binary metallic phosphide, Nb2P5, belongs to technologically important class of materials. Quite surprisingly, a large number of physical properties of Nb2P5, including elastic properties and their anisotropy, acoustic, electronic (DOS, charge density distribution, electron density difference), thermo-physical, bonding characteristics, and optical properties have not been investigated at all. In the present work we have explored all these properties in details for the first time employing density functional theory based first-principles method. Nb2P5 is found to be a mechanically stable, elastically anisotropic compound with weak brittle character. The bondings among the atoms are dominated by covalent and ionic contributions with small signature of metallic feature. The compound possesses high level of machinability. Nb2P5 is a moderately hard compound. The band structure calculations reveal metallic conduction with a large electronic density of states at the Fermi level. Calculated values of different thermal properties indicate that Nb2P5 has the potential to be used as a thermal barrier coating material. The energy dependent optical parameters show close agreement with the underlying electronic band structure. The optical absorption and reflectivity spectra and the static index of refraction of Nb2P5 show that the compound holds promise to be used in optoelectronic device sector. Unlike notable anisotropy in elastic and mechanical properties, the optical parameters are found to be almost isotropic.