Effect of surface oxidation on the electronic transport properties of phosphorene gas sensors: a computational study

The potential for phosphorene-based devices has been compromised by the material's fast degradation under ambient conditions. Its tendency to fully oxidize under O(2)-rich and humid environments, leads to the loss of its appealing semiconducting properties. However, partially-oxidized phosphorene (po-phosphorene), has been demonstrated to remain stable over significantly longer periods of time, thereby enabling its use in sensing applications. Here, we present a computational study of po-phosphorene-based gas sensors, using the Density-Functional-based Tight Binding (DFTB) method. We show that DFTB accurately predicts the bandgap for the pristine material and po-phosphorene, the electronic transport properties of po-phosphorene at different surface oxygen concentrations, and the appropriate trends in Density-of-States (DOS) contributions caused by adsorbed gas molecules, to demonstrate its potential application in the development of gas sensors. Results are compared against the more traditional and expensive Density Functional Theory (DFT) method using generalized gradient approximation (GGA) exchange–correlation functionals, which significantly underestimates the material's bandgap.