Highly Selective Adsorption on SiSe Monolayer and Effect of Strain Engineering: A DFT Study

Density functional theory analysis for H2S adsorption on pyridinic N- and oxidized N-doped graphenes

Biomass discharged from primary industries can be converted into methane by fermentation. This methane is used for generating electricity with solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). This methane fermentation provides H₂S, which reduces the efficiency of SOFCs even at a level as low as a few parts per million. It has been experimentally reported that a nitrogen (N)-doped graphene-based material known as pyridinic N removes H₂S via an oxidation reaction compared with another graphene-based material known as oxidized N. To understand this experimental result, we investigated H₂S adsorption on pyridinic N and oxidized N by a density functional theory analysis and further examined the activation barrier of dissociation reactions. We found that the adsorption of H₂S on pyridinic N is more stable than that on oxidized N. In addition, the H₂S dissociation reaction occurs only on pyridinic N.

We focus on graphene-based structures as promising adsorbents for H2S. DFT showed that the nitrogen-terminated structure (pyridinic N) showed better adsorption than the oxygen-terminated structure (oxidized N).

Unveiling the Fundamental Mechanisms of Graphene Oxide Selectivity on the Ascorbic Acid, Dopamine, and Uric Acid by Density Functional Theory Calculations and Charge Population Analysis

The selectivity of electrochemical sensors to ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA), and uric acid (UA) remains an open challenge in the field of biosensing. In this study, the selective mechanisms for detecting AA, DA, and UA molecules on the graphene and graphene oxide substrates were illustrated through the charge population analysis from the density functional theory (DFT) calculation results. Our substrate models contained the 1:10 oxygen per carbon ratio of reduced graphene oxide, and the functionalized configurations were selected according to the formation energy. Geometry optimizations were performed for the AA, DA, and UA on the pristine graphene, epoxy-functionalized graphene, and hydroxyl-functionalized graphene at the DFT level with vdW-DF2 corrections. From the calculations, AA was bound to both epoxy and hydroxyl-functionalized GO with relatively low adsorption energy, while DA was adsorbed stronger to the electronegative epoxy groups. The strongest adsorption of UA to both functional groups corresponded to the largest amount of electron transfer through the pi orbitals. Local electron loss created local electric fields that opposed the electron transfer during an oxidation reaction. Our analysis agreed with the results from previous experimental studies and provided insight into other electrode modifications for electrochemical sensing.