DFT study on Al/Sn-decorated arsenene: chemical bonding and adsorption of hexanal
Iltaf Muhammad, Muhammad Mushtaq, Zhang Leilei, M.A. Khan, Kanwal Qasim, Maryam Sabir, Shaimaa A. M. Abdelmohsen, Meznah M. Alanazi, A. Laref, N. M. A. Hadia
Abstract
Herein, DFT calculations were performed to investigate various properties of Al/Sn-decorated arsenene, including its electronic structure, magnetism, and hexanal sensing. Three main systems were examined: pristine arsenene (p-As), aluminum (Al)-decorated arsenene (Al-As), and tin (Sn)-decorated arsenene (Sn-As). Results showed that both decorated systems exhibit magnetism in the ground state. The introduction of Al/Sn atoms significantly alters the electronic structure of arsenene by inducing defect-level states within the band gap. Al-As showed metallic characteristics, and Sn-As exhibited a small band gap. The strength and nature of chemical bonding between the X (X = Al and Sn) and As atoms were evaluated using COHP and ELF analysis. It was found that the X-As bond exhibited a mixed covalent and ionic character. Finally, the adsorption of a volatile organic compound (VOC), hexanal (HL), was investigated. We found that HL was weakly adsorbed on p-As and Sn-As. However, chemisorption was observed on Al-As due to a significant charge transfer through p-p overlapping. Thus, Al-As can be considered a promising candidate for HL sensing.