A New Flatland Buddy As Toxic Gas Scavenger: A First Principles Study

Recently predicted and grown new single element two dimensional (2D) material borophene gathered tremendous research interest due to its structural, electronic and other properties. Using first principles based dispersion corrected density functional calculations, we have studied interaction of two toxic gases phosgene (COCl) and carbon monoxide (CO) with borophene to understand the role of borophene as biosensor and carriers in drug delivery. The sensing behaviour of borophene towards COCl and CO has been studied by calculating the binding energy and electronic density of states (DOS). The change in the band structure, DOS, charge density and work function (WF) upon adsorption of gas molecules further confirms the sensing properties of borophene towards these molecules. The binding energy for COCl and CO molecules on borophene is -0.306 eV and -0.15 eV respectively which indicates that the COCl is adsorbed more favourably than CO over borophene. The WF is enhanced by 0.193 eV and 0.051 eV after the adsorption of COCl and CO over borophene. Short recovery time of 148 ns and 37 ns for COCl and CO has been predicted. These findings show that the borophene can be used as nanosensor to detect COCl and CO.