Penta-Graphene as a Potential Gas Sensor for NOx Detection

Studying the Adsorption of Gas Molecules and Defects on Modulating the Electronic Transport Characteristics of Monolayer Penta-BN2-Based Devices

Two-dimensional atomic layer materials, as an important part of the post-Moore era, have recently become an ideal choice for the preparation of high-efficiency, low-power, and miniaturized gas sensors. In this work, our study utilized density functional theory and the nonequilibrium Green's function method to investigate the electronic properties of the pentagonal BN2 (P-BN2) monolayer, as well as its gas-sensing properties for organic and inorganic gases. We also investigated how defects affect the quantum transport properties of the P-BN2-based device. Our findings demonstrate that the CO, H2S, NH3, SO2, C2H5OH, C3H6OH, CH3OH, and CH4 undergo physisorption on the P-BN2 monolayer, while NO, NO2, C2H2, C2H4, and HCHO undergo chemisorption. Then, we analyzed the impact of gas molecules chemisorbed on the P-BN2 monolayer on the electronic transport properties of the P-BN2-based gas sensor. When these five gas molecules are adsorbed, the current of the P-BN2-based gas sensor is greatly reduced. In addition, the effect of defects on the quantum transport properties of the P-BN2-based device is investigated. The results indicate that defects of N, B, and BN atoms lead to a decrease in the current of P-BN2-based nanodevices. Moreover, both the adsorption of gas molecules and the formation of vacancy defects leading to a decrease in device current can be revealed by the local device density of states near the zero-bias Fermi level, elucidating their microscopic mechanisms. Finally, gas molecules can also cause a decrease in the current of defect systems. These theoretical studies are of great significance for exploring two-dimensional atomic layer materials as high-efficiency gas sensors.

Two-Dimensional Planar Penta-NiPN with Ultrahigh Carrier Mobility and Its Potential Application in NO and NO2 Gas Sensing

Two-dimensional (2D) materials with novel structures and electronic properties are promising candidates for the next generation of micro- and nano-electronic devices. Herein, inspired by the recent experimental synthesis of penta-NiN₂ (ACS Nano, 2021, 15, 13539-13546), we propose for the first time a novel ternary penta-NiPN monolayer with high stability by partial element substitution. Our predicted penta-NiPN monolayer is a quasi-direct bandgap (1.237 eV) semiconductor with ultrahigh carrier mobilities (10³-10⁵ cm²V^-1s^-1). Furthermore, we systematically studied the adsorption properties of common gas molecules (CO, CO₂, CH₄, H₂, H₂O, H₂S, N₂, NO, NO₂, NH₃, and SO₂) on the penta-NiPN monolayer and its effects on electronic properties. According to the energetic, geometric, and electronic analyses, the penta-NiPN monolayer is predicted to be a promising candidate for NO and NO₂ molecules. The excellent electronic properties of and the unique selectivity of the penta-NiPN monolayer for NO and NO₂ adsorption suggest that it has high potential in advanced electronics and gas sensing applications.

Two dimensional monolayers TetraHex-CX2 (X = N, P, As, and Sb) with superior electronic, mechanical and optical properties

The discovery of graphene in 2004 opened a new world of two dimensional (2D) materials, stimulating the broad explorations of other novel 2D carbon structures and their derivatives in many materials fields. Although many 2D materials have been proposed theoretically, the experimental fabrication of them remains a big challenge, leading to more efforts to explore novel 2D materials with excellent properties. Here, we constructed four 2D monolayers TetraHex-CX₂ (X = N, P, As, and Sb) using first-principles calculations. These thin materials composed of tetragonal and hexagonal rings exhibit good stabilities, extraordinarily flexible mechanical properties, indirect bandgaps (≤2.30 eV except TetraHex-CN₂) with a semiconducting nature and a strong optical absorption up to 10⁵ cm^-1, showing the potential nanomechanical, nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications. On building the structure-property relationship, we found that the Pauling electronegativity of X has an important influence on the electronic and mechanical properties of CX₂, which provides a significant understanding of the fundamental origin of materials properties and is helpful to design novel 2D materials with special properties.

Effect of the co-adsorption of small molecules from air on the properties of penta-graphene and their proton transfer calculation

Penta-graphene has attracted considerable attention due to its unique structure and novel properties. Herein, we studied the effect of the co-adsorption of small molecules from air on the properties of penta-graphene using first-principles calculations. Our results show that oxygen molecules can be self-decomposed on the surface of penta-graphene and the process of O₂ decomposition is an exothermic reaction. On the contrary, the adsorption of H₂O or N₂ molecule on penta-graphene exhibits weak interaction characteristic. For co-adsorption systems, the adsorption of N₂ molecule has no effect on the electronic properties of penta-graphene because the N₂ molecule is more inert than other molecules. Hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) have been observed in the co-adsorption of H₂O and O₂ on penta-graphene. We find that shorter H-bonds lead to higher stability of the systems. We also explore the proton transfer process between H₂O and oxidized penta-graphene. Our results show that the proton transfer process is relatively difficult due to the high energy barrier. However, double-proton transfer is an exothermic process since the energy of the final state is 0.11 eV lower than that of the initial state. These results indicate that the configuration of oxidized penta-graphene is complicated. Our research provides a theoretical basis and important guidance for the experimental synthesis and functionalization of penta-graphene.

Density Functional Theory Study of B, N, and Si Doped Penta-Graphene as the Potential Gas Sensors for NH3 Detection

Designing a high-performance gas sensor to efficiently detect the hazardous NH₃ molecule is beneficial to air monitoring and pollution control. In this work, the first-principles calculations were employed to investigate the adsorption structures, electronic characteristics, and gas sensing properties of the pristine and B-, N-, P-, Al-, and Si-doped penta-graphene (PG) toward the NH₃, H₂S, and SO₂ molecules. The results indicate that the pristine PG is insensitive to those toxic gases due to the weak adsorption strength and long adsorption distance. Nevertheless, the doping of B, N, Al, and Si (B and Al) results in the transition of NH₃ (H₂S and SO₂) adsorption from physisorption to chemisorption, which is primarily ascribed to the large charge transfer and strong orbital hybridizations between gas molecules and doping atoms. In addition, NH₃ adsorption leads to the remarkable variation of electrical conductivity for the B-, N-, and Si-doped PG, and the adsorption strength of NH₃ on the B-, N-, and Si-doped PG is larger than that of H₂S and SO₂. Moreover, the chemically adsorbed NH₃ molecule on the N-, B-, and Si-doped PG can be effectively desorbed by injecting electrons into the systems. Those results shed light on the potential application of PG-based nanosheets as reusable gas sensors for NH₃ detection.

Defect and Doping Engineered Penta-graphene for Catalysis of Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Water electrolysis is a sustainable and clean method to produce hydrogen fuel via hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Using stable, effective and low-cost electrocatalysts for HER to substitute expensive noble metals is highly desired. In this paper, by using first-principles calculation, we designed a defect and N-, S-, P-doped penta-graphene (PG) as a two-dimensional (2D) electrocatalyst for HER, and its stability, electronic properties and catalytic performance were investigated. The Gibbs free energy (ΔG_H), which is the best descriptor for the HER, is calculated and optimized, the calculation results show that the ΔG_H can be 0 eV with C2 vacancies and P doping at C1 active sites, which should be the optimal performance for a HER catalyst. Moreover, we reveal that the larger charge transfer from PG to H, the closer ΔG_H is to zero according to the calculation of the electron charge density differences and Bader charges analysis. Ulteriorly, we demonstrated that the HER performance prefers the Volmer-Heyrovsky mechanism in this study.

Sn3C2monolayer with transition metal adatom for gas sensing: a density functional theory studies

The gas sensing properties of pristine Sn₃C₂monolayer and different transition metal adatom (TM-Sn₃C₂, where TM = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ru, Rh, Pd and Ag) was investigated using van der Waals corrected density functional theory. The understanding and potential of use of Sn₃C₂monolayers as sensors or adsorbent for CO, CO₂, NO, NO₂and SO₂gaseous molecules is evaluated by calculating the adsorption and desorption energetics. From the calculated adsorption energies, we found that the pristine Sn₃C₂monolayer and 3dTM has desirable properties for removal of the considered molecules based on their high adsorption energy, however the 4dTM is applicable as recoverable sensors. We applied an Arrhenius-type equation to evaluate the recovery time for the desorption of the molecules on the pristine and TM adatom on Sn₃C₂monolayer. We found that the negative adsorption energies from -1 to -2 eV of the molecules resulted in easier recovery of the adsorbed gases at reasonable temperatures compared to adsorption energies in between 0 and -1 eV (weakly physiosorbed) and below -2 eV (strongly chemisorbed). Hence, we obtained that the Rh-Sn₃C₂, Ru-Sn₃C₂, Pd-Sn₃C₂, Pd-Sn₃C₂, and Rh-Sn₃C₂monolayers are good recoverable scavengers for the CO, CO₂, NO, NO₂, and SO₂molecules. The current theoretical calculations provide new insight on the effect of TM adatoms on the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of the Sn₃C₂monolayer and different transition metal adatom as well as shed light on their application as gas sensors/scavengers.

Band gap and magnetic engineering of penta-graphene via adsorption of small transition clusters

Penta-graphene has been intensively studied owing to its superior properties such as being an intrinsic semiconductor and having two dimensional stability. However, the nonmagnetic character makes it difficult for straightforward application in the fields of spintronic or information storage. Here, the deposition effects of Fe-group and Co-group transition metal (TM = Fe, Ru, Os; Co, Rh, Ir) clusters on the penta-graphene have been systemically investigated for their electronic and magnetic properties by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We found that the TM deposition stability on penta-graphene is overall greater than that on graphene. Importantly, TM adatoms (adclusters) not only change penta-graphene from being a wide band-gap semiconductor to a narrow band-gap semiconductor, but also introduce large magnetic moments into systems simultaneously. It is worth noting that the Ir5 cluster on penta-graphene is a good candidate for realizing the magnetic half-metallic materials. Our calculated results demonstrate that adatoms can exhibit large out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy energy, e.g., the Os adatom presents the largest value of 113 meV. Therefore, from the application point of view, magnetic functionalization of penta-graphene by TM clusters facilitates its application as a spintronic device or a high-density information storage device.

Strain and Electric Field Controllable Schottky Barriers and Contact Types in Graphene-MoTe2 van der Waals Heterostructure

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides with intrinsically passivated surfaces are promising candidates for ultrathin optoelectronic devices that their performance is strongly affected by the contact with the metallic electrodes. Herein, first-principle calculations are used to construct and investigate the electronic and interfacial properties of 2D MoTe2 in contact with a graphene electrode by taking full advantage of them. The obtained results reveal that the electronic properties of graphene and MoTe2 layers are well preserved in heterostructures due to the weak van der Waals interlayer interaction, and the Fermi level moves toward the conduction band minimum of MoTe2 layer thus forming an n type Schottky contact at the interface. More interestingly, the Schottky barrier height and contact types in the graphene-MoTe2 heterostructure can be effectively tuned by biaxial strain and external electric field, which can transform the heterostructure from an n type Schottky contact to a p type one or to Ohmic contact. This work provides a deeper insight look for tuning the contact types and effective strategies to design high performance MoTe2-based Schottky electronic nanodevices.