First-Principles Study of Gas Molecule Adsorption on C-doped Zigzag Phosphorene Nanoribbons

Phosphorene, due to its large surface-to-volume ratio and high chemical activity, shows potential application for gas sensing. In order to explore its sensing performance, we have performed the first-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the perfect and C-doped zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons (C-ZPNRs) with a series of small gas molecules (NH3, NO, NO2, H2, O2, CO, and CO2) adsorbed. The calculated results show that NH3, CO2, O2 gas molecules have relatively larger adsorption energies than other gas molecules, indicating that phosphorene is more sensitive to these gas molecules. For C-ZPNRs configuration, the adsorption energy of NO and NO2 increase and that of other gas molecules decrease. Interestingly, the adsorption energy of hydrogen is −0.229 eV, which may be suitable for hydrogen storage. It is hoped that ZPNRs may be a good sensor for (NH3, CO2 and O2) and C-ZPNRs may be useful for H2 storage.