This work demonstrated a proof-of-concept use case for the emerging quantum-centric supercomputing approaches combining HPC resources with quantum computers. We presented a systematic implementation of hybrid quantum-classical computational method for accelerating atomistic simulations studying corrosion inhibition. We used aluminium surface with screened inhibitor molecule on top. We combined density functional theory (DFT) with quantum algorithm through an active space embedding scheme. We chosen inhibitor molecules of 1,2,4-Triazole and 1,2,4-Triazole-3-thiol. Our implementation leveraged the ADAPT-VQE algorithm with benchmarking against classical DFT calculations, achieving binding energies of -0.386 eV and -1.279 eV for 1,2,4-Triazole and 1,2,4-Triazole-3-thiol, respectively. The binding energy of the thiol derivative aligned with experimental observations regarding sulfur-functionalized inhibitors' which could improve corrosion protection. The methodology employed the orb-d3-v2 machine learning potential for rapid geometry optimizations, followed by accurate DFT calculations using CP2K with PBE functional and Grimme's D3 dispersion corrections. CP2K is a robust DFT package that can scale on HPC classical resources of CPUs and GPUs efficiently. We also benchmarked against smaller systems and revealed that StatefulAdaptVQE implementation achieves a 5-6×computational speedup while maintaining accuracy. This work contributes to the literature studying quantum-accelerated materials science applied to periodic systems, demonstrating the viability of hybrid quantum-classical approaches for studying surface-adsorbate interactions in corrosion inhibition applications. In which, can be transferable to other applications such as carbon capture on metal oxide frameworks and solid-state battery materials studies.
This work demonstrated a proof-of-concept use case for the emerging quantum-centric supercomputing approaches combining HPC resources with quantum computers. We presented a systematic implementation of hybrid quantum-classical computational method for accelerating atomistic simulations studying corrosion inhibition. We used aluminium surface with screened inhibitor molecule on top. We combined density functional theory (DFT) with quantum algorithm through an active space embedding scheme. We chosen inhibitor molecules of 1,2,4-Triazole and 1,2,4-Triazole-3-thiol. Our implementation leveraged the ADAPT-VQE algorithm with benchmarking against classical DFT calculations, achieving binding energies of -0.386 eV and -1.279 eV for 1,2,4-Triazole and 1,2,4-Triazole-3-thiol, respectively. The binding energy of the thiol derivative aligned with experimental observations regarding sulfur-functionalized inhibitors' which could improve corrosion protection. The methodology employed the orb-d3-v2 machine learning potential for rapid geometry optimizations, followed by accurate DFT calculations using CP2K with PBE functional and Grimme's D3 dispersion corrections. CP2K is a robust DFT package that can scale on HPC classical resources of CPUs and GPUs efficiently. We also benchmarked against smaller systems and revealed that StatefulAdaptVQE implementation achieves a 5-6×computational speedup while maintaining accuracy. This work contributes to the literature studying quantum-accelerated materials science applied to periodic systems, demonstrating the viability of hybrid quantum-classical approaches for studying surface-adsorbate interactions in corrosion inhibition applications. In which, can be transferable to other applications such as carbon capture on metal oxide frameworks and solid-state battery materials studies.
This work demonstrates a systematic implementation of hybrid quantum-classical computational methods for investigating corrosion inhibition mechanisms on aluminum surfaces. We present an integrated workflow combining density functional theory (DFT) with quantum algorithms through an active space embedding scheme, specifically applied to studying 1,2,4-Triazole and 1,2,4-Triazole-3-thiol inhibitors on Al111 surfaces. Our implementation leverages the ADAPT-VQE algorithm with benchmarking against classical DFT calculations, achieving binding energies of -0.386 eV and -1.279 eV for 1,2,4-Triazole and 1,2,4-Triazole-3-thiol, respectively. The enhanced binding energy of the thiol derivative aligns with experimental observations regarding sulfur-functionalized inhibitors' improved corrosion protection. The methodology employs the orb-d3-v2 machine learning potential for rapid geometry optimizations, followed by accurate DFT calculations using CP2K with PBE functional and Grimme's D3 dispersion corrections. Our benchmarking on smaller systems reveals that StatefulAdaptVQE implementation achieves a 5-6x computational speedup while maintaining accuracy. This work establishes a workflow for quantum-accelerated materials science studying periodic systems, demonstrating the viability of hybrid quantum-classical approaches for studying surface-adsorbate interactions in corrosion inhibition applications. In which, can be transferable to other applications such as carbon capture and battery materials studies.
Understanding strongly correlated systems is essential for advancing quantum chemistry and materials science, yet conventional methods like Density Functional Theory (DFT) often fail to capture their complex electronic behavior. To address these limitations, we develop a hybrid quantum-classical framework that integrates Multiconfigurational Self-Consistent Field (MCSCF) with the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE). Our initial benchmarks on water dissociation enabled the systematic optimization of key computational parameters, including ansatz selection, active space construction, and error mitigation. Building on this, we extend our approach to investigate the interactions between graphene analogues and water, demonstrating that our framework produces binding energies consistent with high-accuracy quantum methods. Furthermore, we apply this methodology to predict the binding energies of transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni) on both pristine and defective graphene analogues, revealing strong charge transfer effects and pronounced multireference character─phenomena often misrepresented by standard DFT. In contrast to many existing quantum algorithms that are constrained to small molecular systems, our framework achieves chemically accurate predictions for larger, strongly correlated systems such as metal-graphene complexes. This advancement highlights the capacity of hybrid quantum-classical approaches to address complex electronic interactions and demonstrates a practical route toward realizing quantum advantage for real-world materials applications in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era.
Scientific simulations demand methods combining scalability with predictive accuracy. Density Functional Theory (DFT) on High-Performance Computing (HPC) enables large-scale electronic-structure simulations but is limited by approximations affecting strongly correlated systems and band-gap predictions. Quantum computing offers a pathway to address this, though current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) hardware remains constrained by qubit resources, noise, and execution cost.
This work presents a hybrid DFT-Quantum Embedding (QDFT) framework integrating classical HPC-based DFT with a quantum electronic-structure solver. Large systems are partitioned to isolate a chemically relevant active space, treated via the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE), while the remaining degrees of freedom are described by DFT. The framework incorporates active-space selection, embedded Hamiltonian construction, symmetry preservation, operator mapping, self-consistent density updating, and modular classical-quantum coupling.
We focus on noiseless quantum simulation to systematically evaluate accuracy, convergence, active-space dependence, computational cost, and HPC scalability without hardware noise. Detailed profiling identifies computational bottlenecks and highlights limitations of CPU-based quantum simulation. A QPU runtime-estimation methodology is additionally developed to assess execution requirements on actual quantum hardware.
Results demonstrate quantum embedding's potential to improve selected electronic-structure properties while retaining classical HPC's scalability. Noisy quantum simulation and QPU execution remain key future directions, providing a pathway toward practical, scalable HPC-quantum hybrid simulations as hardware matures.
Quantum-centric supercomputing (in which a quantum processor samples the dominant electronic configurations and classical high-performance computing resources perform the diagonalisation) is emerging as a practical route to correlated electronic-structure calculations. We present QuantumPave, a hybrid quantum-classical workflow for computing additive binding energies in asphalt binder, a quantity central to the oxidative ageing of road infrastructure. Using a 24-atom pyridine-phenol hydrogen-bonded complex as a representative model, we couple machine-learning interatomic potentials (ORB v3) for geometry optimisation with quantum-selected configuration interaction (QSCI), also referred to as sample based quantum diagonalisation (SQD), in a (10e, 10o) active space run on the 54-qubit IQM Emerald processor. On hardware, SQD reproduces the active-space CASCI reference exactly, giving a binding energy of -3.52 kcal/mol (-0.153 eV); the device noise broadens the sampling to span the active space, so no zero-noise extrapolation is required. This active-space value captures the static correlation within the chosen orbitals and underbinds the full hydrogen bond: a counterpoise-corrected CCSD(T) benchmark gives -8.5 to -9.5 kcal/mol, while the calorimetric enthalpy of about -6.25 kcal/mol is consistent with this once zero-point, thermal, and solvent contributions are included. We show that chemically meaningful binding energies for an industrially relevant materials problem are attainable on current quantum hardware within a quantum-centric supercomputing workflow.
Corrosion inhibition efficiency (IE%) prediction plays a central role in the computational discovery of high-performance organic inhibitors. Classical machine learning has shown promising results; however, its performance often deteriorates when learning non-linear interactions between quantum chemical descriptors. Meanwhile, quantum machine learning (QML) provides enhanced expressivity through quantum feature mapping but remains limited by NISQ-era hardware. In this study, we propose a Hybrid Quantum Neural Network (HQNN) integrating classical dense layers with variational quantum circuits (VQC) to predict the inhibition efficiency of organic corrosion inhibitors. Using a curated dataset of 660 molecules with DFT descriptors, the HQNN achieves an RMSE of 3.41 and R² of 0.958, outperforming classical regressors and pure VQC. The results demonstrate that hybrid quantum models offer a balanced trade-off between quantum advantage and practical feasibility in materials informatics.
Direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide is a promising method for mitigating climate change. Solid sorbents, such as metal–organic frameworks, are currently being tested for DAC application. However, their potential for deployment at scale has not been fully realized. The computational discovery of solid sorbents is challenging, given the vast chemical search space and the DAC requirements for molecular selectivity. Quantum computing can potentially accelerate the discovery of solid sorbents for DAC by predicting molecular binding energies. In this work, we explore algorithms for predicting gas adsorption in metal–organic frameworks using a quantum computer. In particular, we simulate the potential energy surfaces of CO2, N2, and H2O molecules at the Mg+2 metal center that represents the binding sites of typical metal–organic frameworks. We apply the qubit-ADAPT-VQE technique to run simulations on both classical and quantum computing hardware and achieve reasonable accuracy while maintaining hardware efficiency.