DFT, AIM, and NBO study of the interaction of simple and sulfur-doped graphenes with molecular halogens, CH3OH, CH3SH, H2O, and H2S

Abstract

Graphene is an important material in adsorption processes because of its high surface. In this work, the interactions between graphene (G), S-doped graphene (SG), and 2S-doped graphene (2SG) with eight small molecules including molecular halogens, CH3OH, CH3SH, H2O, and H2S were studied using density functional theory calculations. The adsorption energies showed that the SG was the best adsorbent, fluorine was the best adsorbate, and all molecular halogens were adsorbed on graphenes better than the other molecules. Most adsorption processes in the gas phase were exothermic with small positive ΔG ads. Moreover, the solvent effect on the adsorption process was examined and all ΔH ads and ΔG ads values for adsorption processes tended to be more negative in all solvents. Therefore, most adsorption processes in the solvents were thermodynamically favorable. The second order perturbation energies obtained from NBO calculations confirmed that the interactions between molecular halogens and our molecules had more strength than those of other molecules. The Laplacian of ρ values obtained from the AIM calculations indicated that the type of interaction in all our complexes was one of closed shell interaction. The MO results and DOS plots also revealed that sulfur doping could increase the conductivity of graphene and this conductivity was enhanced more when they interacted with molecular halogens.