Doped diamond nanowires for NO and NO2 adsorption and sensing: A DFT investigation

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to investigate the adsorption of gas molecules (N2, O2, NO, and NO2) on undoped and X-doped (X = B, Al, Ga) diamond nanowires (DNWs). The sensitivity of these nanowires towards pollutant molecules was analyzed through the calculation of the molecule adsorption energies and electronic properties of the molecule-DNW complexes. The results show that all the studied molecules are adsorbed on undoped and doped DNWs. Moreover, the adsorption energies of N2, O2 and NO2 are improved by doping DNW with Al atoms. In contrast, undoped DNWs have the highest adsorption energy for NO molecules. Moreover, the results show that undoped DNWs are highly sensitive towards NO2 molecules, whereas B-doped DNWs are highly sensitive to N2, O2, and NO. In addition to the excellent performance of DNWs for O2, NO, and NO2 trapping and N2 sensing, they also exhibit adequate recovery times for high-temperature sensing applications.