Long Range Functionalization of h-BN Monolayer by Carbon Doping

Abstract

Adsorption and catalytic activation of the molecular oxygen on the hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) monolayer doped with carbon atom have been studied theoretically using density functional theory. It is demonstrated that C doping in B position of h-BN (CB@h-BN) produces n-type semiconductor BN material with noticeable catalytic activity for O2 activation in the large area extended far away from the C impurity. The adsorption energy of O2 on CB@h-BN decreasing slowly with the increase in distance from the CB defect, while O2 remains highly activated. No such effect is observed for monolayer h-BN doped with different atoms of group III, IV and V and transition-metal elements, such as B, N, Al, Si, Ge, Ni, Pt, Pd, and Au, where O2 adsorbs only in the close vicinity of the dopant. It is shown that even small concentration of C dopants can functionalize the large surface area of monolayer BN making it promising catalytic material for oxygen activation and oxygen reduction reaction.