Stability, defect and electronic properties of graphane-like carbon-halogen compounds

We perform first-principles total energy calculations to investigate the stabilities and the electronic structures of graphane-like structures of carbon-halogen compounds, where the hydrogen atoms in the graphane are substituted by halogen atoms. Three halogen elements, fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl) and bromine (Br), are considered, and the graphane-like structures are named as CF, CCl and CBr, respectively. It is found that for the single-atom adsorption, only the F adatom can be chemically adsorbed on the graphene. However, the stable graphane-like structures of CF, CCl and CBr can form due to the interaction between the halogen atoms. The carbon atoms in the stable CF, CCl and CBr compounds are in the sp³ hybridization, forming a hexagonal network similar to the graphane. The electronic band calculations show that CF and CCl are semiconductors with band gaps of 3.28 eV and 1.66 eV, respectively, while CBr is a metal. Moreover, the molecular dynamics simulation is employed to clarify the stabilities of CF and CCl. Those two compounds are stable at room temperature. A high temperature (≥1200 K) is needed to damage CF, while CCl is destroyed at 700 K. Furthermore, the effects of a vacancy on the structure and the electronic property of CF are discussed.