Energetics and Structural Transitions of Nonequivalent Polytypes for FCC and HCP Metals

Abstract Although metal nanomaterials with unconventional phases have attracted extensive attention, the lack of information on the characteristics of metal polytypes hinders the development of related research. In this work, the energetics of nonequivalent polytypes for bulk face‐centered cubic (Li, Al, Ca, Cu, Sr, Rh, Pd, Ag, Ir, Pt, Au, and Pb) and hexagonal close‐packed metals (Be, Na, Mg, Sc, Ti, Zn, Cd, Y, Zr, Tc, Ru, Hf, Re, Os, and Tl) is systematically reported. For each metal, the structural properties and energies for its polytypes with up to the periodic stacking length of L = 10 is obtained by DFT calculation. The variation tendency of the energy differences between 3C and 2H polytypes is summarized in the Periodic Table of Elements. Generally, the ratio c /( La ) increases when metal crystals except Ir, Rh, Zn, and Cd leave away from their ground‐state structure. It is found that the energy difference between polytypes originates from various interactions between the two types of atomic layers: the k layer and the h layer. The work is helpful to understand not only the structural transitions in bulk metals, such as Li, Na, Sr, Ti, Al, Pb, Y, Re, and Tl, but also the evolutions of Au nanomaterials.