Benchmark Investigation of SCC-DFTB Against Standard DFT to Model Phononic Properties in Two-Dimensional MOFs for Thermoelectric Applications

Despite the importance of modeling lattice thermal conductivity in predicting thermoelectric (TE) properties, computational data on heat transport, especially from first-principles, in 2D metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) remain limited due to the high computational cost. To address this, we provide a benchmark of the performance of semiempirical self-consistent-charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) methods against density functional theory (DFT) for monolayer, serrated, AA-stacked and/or AB-stacked Zn₃C₆O₆, Cd₃C₆O₆, Zn-NH-MOF, and Ni₃(HITP)₂ MOFs. Harmonic lattice dynamics calculations, including partial atomic contributions to phonon dispersions, are evaluated with both SCC-DFTB and DFT, whereas anharmonic transport (i.e., thermal conductivity) is evaluated with SCC-DFTB only. Our findings further suggest that unlike the other stacking geometries modeled, serrated Zn₃C₆O₆, serrated Zn-NH-MOF, and wavy serrated Ni₃(HITP)₂ represent stable geometries. While Zn₃C₆O₆ and Zn-NH-MOF exhibit a higher power factor than Ni₃(HITP)₂ (as found in our previous work), Zn-NH-MOF shows lower thermal conductivity, resulting in the highest thermoelectric figure of merit (<i>ZT</i>) among the studied MOFs.