Electronic properties of α-graphyne nanoribbons under the electric field effect

In this paper, we investigate the electronic structure of both armchair and zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbons. We use a simple tight binding model to study the variation of the electronic band gap in α-graphyne nanoribbon. The effects of ribbon width, transverse electric field and edge shape on the electronic structure have been studied. Our results show that in the absence of external electric field, zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbons are semimetal and the electronic band gap in armchair α-graphyne nanoribbon oscillates and decreases with ribbon's width. By applying an external electric field the band gap in the electronic structure of zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbon opens and oscillates with ribbon width and electric field magnitude. Also the band gap of armchair α-graphyne nanoribbon decreases in low electric field, but it has an oscillatory growth behavior for high strength of external electric field.     

Density functional study of α-graphyne derivatives: Energetic stability,atomic and electronic structure

The energetic stability, atomic and electronic structures of α-graphyne and its derivatives (α-GYs) with extended carbon chains were investigated by density functional (DF) calculations in this work. The studied α-GYs consist of hexagon carbon rings sharing their edges with carbon atoms N=1–10. The structure and energy analyses show that α-GYs with even-numbered carbon chains have alternating single and triple C–C bonds (polyyne), energetically more stable than those with odd-numbered carbon chains possessing continuous double C–C bonds (polycumulene). The calculated electronic structures indicate that α-GYs can be either metallic (odd N) or semiconductive (even N) depending on the parity of number of atoms on hexagon edges despite the edge length. The semiconducting α-graphyne derivatives are found to possess Dirac cones (DC) with small direct band gaps 2–40 meV and large electron velocities 0.554×10⁶–0.671×10⁶ m/s, 70–80% of that of graphene. Our DF studies suggest that introducing sp carbon atoms into the hexagon edges of graphene opens up an avenue to switch between metallic and DC electronic structures via tuning the parity of the number of hexagon edge atoms.     

Detection of hydrogen peroxide with graphyne

The effect of hydrogen peroxide on the electronic properties of graphyne has been investigated to explore the possibility of using graphyne based biosensor. We have used density functional theory to study the electronic properties of γ-graphyne in the presence of different number of hydrogen peroxide. The optimal adsorption position, orientation, and distance of hydrogen peroxide adsorbed on the graphyne sheet have been determined by calculating adsorption energy. It is found that γ-graphyne which is an intrinsic semiconductor becomes an n-type semiconductor due to the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The energy band gap of γ-graphyne is decreased by increasing the number of hydrogen peroxide. The results demonstrate that γ-graphyne is a promising candidate for biosensor application because of its electrical sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide.     

Molecular investigation of water adsorption on graphene and graphyne surfaces

In this paper the adsorption action of a water droplet on the graphene and graphyne externals has been examined. Conclusions received from the calculation of the water contact angle on the graphene and the graphynes surfaces have demonstrated that graphyne is more hydrophobic than graphene. Sketching the contour maps of the water interaction showed different behaviors of water droplet on these surfaces. The results show that water molecules, form a sub_layer of water on the graphyne substrate while this sub_layer does not exist on the graphene. Molecular investigations of the water on the surfaces show that the attendance of a sub_layer of water on the substrate can cause changes, such as the number of hydrogen bonds per water molecule in the water droplet, the order of molecules in different layers of water droplet, and parallel forces to the surface between surface water molecules and substrate, in the structural properties of water droplet. In this study the interaction between first layer and sub-layer of water was investigated. Water drops on surface can affect on the behavior of water sub-layer.     

Density functional theory study of CO2 capture and storage promotion using manipulation of graphyne by 3d and 4d transition metals

In this work, the electronic and structural properties of 3d and 4d transition metal (TM)-decorated graphyne (GY) (TM-GY) toward CO₂ adsorption were studied using the D3-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) method. Then, CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) of the most stable structures were investigated. Results show that the most stable site for all TM decoration is the center of the 12-membered ring with various distances from carbon plane, and GY decorated with Ni and Zn from 3d and Zr and Cd from 4d TMs are also the most and the least stable, energetically with E_b of −5.834, −0.467, −6.181, and −0.963 eV, respectively. Evaluation of the adsorption behavior of CO₂ on TM-GY reveals that the strongest adsorption energies belong to Cr and Mo-GY (−1.502 and −1.117 eV, respectively), and for all 3d and 4d TMs, the horizontal direction of CO₂ is more stable, energetically. Increasing CO₂ molecules, step by step, on Cr and Mo-GY shows that they can hold 13 and 18 CO₂ molecules with average E_ads of −0.374 and −0.330 eV/CO₂ and corresponding CO₂ storage capacities of 47.66 and 54.10 wt%, respectively. These findings show that Cr and Mo-GY can be used in the future as suitable candidates for CCS applications.     

理论研究过渡金属原子修饰石墨炔材料的功能性

采用基于密度泛函理论中第一性原理方法分别对石墨炔负载过渡金属原子(M-gra)体系的稳定构型以及对多种气体小分子的灵敏度和选择性进行理论研究.计算结果表明金属原子吸附在孔洞结构的H2位具有高稳定性,不同种类的金属原子能够有效调控石墨炔体系的电子特性和具有不同的磁矩.比较气体分子的吸附能大小,M-gra衬底对O和OH表现出高的灵敏度,单个NO、NO₂和O₂的稳定性高于CO分子.此外,小分子吸附的M-gra体系具有金属、半金属和半导体特性,在电子和气敏器件领域具有潜在应用.     

石墨炔类结构储锂性能的第一性原理研究

基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理的计算方法, 研究了石墨炔类结构的储锂性能, 结果表明, 石墨炔类体系是一种理想的储锂材料, 锂原子通过向衬底转移电荷而带正电, 彼此之间的库仑排斥作用避免了锂原子的团簇化. 通过比较石墨一炔到石墨五炔的储锂性能, 发现并不是炔键越多其储锂性能就越好, 还需考虑炔键的增多对结构稳定性的影响. 在保证石墨炔类结构稳定的前提下, 石墨二炔和石墨五炔达到LiC₃的最大储锂量.     

Classical atomistic simulations of protein adsorption on carbon nanomaterials

Carbon nanomaterials are receiving an increasingly large interest in a variety of fields, including also nanomedicine. In this area, much attention is devoted to investigating and modeling the behavior of these nanomaterials when they interact with biological fluids and with biological macromolecules, in particular proteins and oligopeptides. The interaction with these molecules is in fact crucial to understand and predict the efficacy of nanomaterials as drug carriers or therapeutic agents as well as their potential toxicity when they occupy the active site of a protein or severely affect the secondary and tertiary structure, or even the local dynamics, thus inhibiting their biological function. In this review, therefore, we describe the most recent work carried out in the last few years to model the interaction between carbon nanomaterials, either pristine or functionalized, and proteins or oligopeptides using classical atomistic methods, mainly molecular dynamics simulations. The attention is focused on 0-dimensional fullerenes, mainly C₆₀, on 1-dimensional carbon nanotubes, mostly the single-walled armchair and some chiral ones, and on 2-dimensional graphene and graphyne, the latter containing also sp hybridized atoms in addition to the sp² ones common to the other carbon nanomaterials.     

DFT study of NH3 adsorption on pristine,Ni- and Si-doped graphynes

The electronic sensitivity of pristine, Ni- and Si-doped graphynes to ammonia (NH₃) molecule was investigated using density functional theory, including dispersion correction. It was found that NH₃ is weakly adsorbed on the sheet, releasing energy of 2.9–4.4 kcal/mol, and the electronic properties of the sheet are not significantly changed. Although both Ni-doping and Si-doping make the sheet more reactive and sensitive to NH₃, Si-doping seems to be a better strategy to manufacture NH₃ chemical sensors because of higher sensitivity. Our calculations show that the HOMO/LUMO gap of the Si-doped sheet is significantly decreased from 2.13 to 1.46 eV after the adsorption of NH₃, which may increase the electrical conductance of the sheet. Therefore, the doped sheet might convert the presence of NH₃ molecules to electrical signals. Moreover, the shorter recovery time of the Si-doped sheet is because of the middle adsorption energy of 39.3 kcal/mol in comparison with 55.1 kcal/mol for the Ni-doped sheet.