Electronic and Structural Properties of BC3 Nanotubes with Defects

Abstract

Defects, which naturally occur in nanostructures such as nanotubes, have a profound effect on their structure and electronic properties, and it is important to include them in the computational studies involving these nanotubes. In this Article, density functional theory calculations are utilized to investigate the impact of topological Stone-Wales (SW) and vacancy defects on the structural and electronic properties of a zigzag BC3 nanotube. It is demonstrated that the most stable state for a SW defect is the structure in which an axial C–C bond is rotated by 90°. For vacancies at carbon sites, two possible configurations are obtained that are both nonmagnetic, whereas vacancy at a boron site induces magnetization in the structure of nanotube. The reconstruction of the boron vacancy can produce different kinds of defect states in the band gap of a semiconducting BC3 nanotube, which are studied using band structure and density of states diagrams.