Stacking-configuration-enriched essential properties of bilayer graphenes and silicenes.

First-principles calculations show that the geometric and electronic properties of silicene-related systems have diversified phenomena. Critical factors of group-IV monoelements, like buckled/planar structures, stacking configurations, layer numbers, and van der Waals interactions of bilayer composites, are considered simultaneously. The theoretical framework developed provides a concise physical and chemical picture. Delicate evaluations and analyses have been made on the optimal lattices, energy bands, and orbital-projected van Hove singularities. They provide decisive mechanisms, such as buckled/planar honeycomb lattices, multi-/single-orbital hybridizations, and significant/negligible spin-orbital couplings. We investigate the stacking-configuration-induced dramatic transformations of essential properties by relative shift in bilayer graphenes and silicenes. The lattice constant, interlayer distance, buckling height, and total energy essentially depend on the magnitude and direction of the relative shift: AA → AB → AA' → AA. Apparently, sliding bilayer systems are quite different between silicene and graphene in terms of geometric structures, electronic properties, orbital hybridizations, interlayer hopping integrals, and spin interactions.

Fundamental Properties of Transition-Metals-Adsorbed Graphene.

The revealing properties of transition metal (T)-doped graphene systems are investigated with the use of the first-principles method. The detailed calculations cover the bond length, position and height of adatoms, binding energy, atom-dominated band structure, adatom-induced free carrier density as well as energy gap, spin-density distributions, spatial charge distribution, and atom-, orbital- and spin-projected density-of-states (DOS). The magnetic configurations are clearly identified from the total magnetic moments, spin-split energy bands, spin-density distributions and spin-decomposed DOS. Moreover, the single- or multi-orbital hybridizations in T-C, T-T, and C-C bonds can be accurately deduced from the careful analyses of the above-mentioned physical quantities. They are responsible for the optimal geometric structure, the unusual electronic properties, as well as the diverse magnetic properties. All the doped systems are metals except for the low-concentration Ni-doped ones with semiconducting behavior. In contrast, ferromagnetism is exhibited in various Fe/Co-concentrations but only under high Ni-concentrations. Our theoretical predictions are compared with available experimental data, and potential applications are also discussed.

Fluorination-enriched electronic and magnetic properties in graphene nanoribbons.

The feature-rich electronic and magnetic properties of fluorine-doped graphene nanoribbons are investigated by the first-principles calculations. They arise from the cooperative or competitive relations among the significant chemical bonds, finite-size quantum confinement and edge structure. There exist C-C, C-F, and F-F bonds with multi-orbital hybridizations. Fluorine adatoms can create p-type metals or concentration- and distribution-dependent semiconductors, depending on whether the π bonding is seriously suppressed by the top-site chemical bonding. Furthermore, five kinds of spin-dependent electronic and magnetic properties cover the non-magnetic and ferromagnetic metals, non-magnetic semiconductors, and anti-ferromagnetic semiconductors with/without spin splitting. The diverse essential properties are clearly revealed in the spatial charge distribution, spin density, and orbital-projected density of states.

Chemical bonding-induced rich electronic properties of oxygen adsorbed few-layer graphenes.

The electronic properties of graphene oxides enriched by strong chemical bonding are investigated using first-principles calculations. They are very sensitive to the changes in the number of graphene layers, stacking configuration, and distribution of oxygen. The feature-rich electronic structures exhibit destruction or distortion of the Dirac cone, opening of a band gap, anisotropic energy dispersions, O- and (C,O)-dominated energy dispersions, and extra critical points. All of the few-layer graphene oxides are semi-metals except for the semiconducting monolayer ones. For the former, the distorted Dirac-cone structures and the O-dominated energy bands near the Fermi level are revealed simultaneously. The orbital-projected density of states (DOS) has many special structures mainly coming from a composite energy band, the parabolic and partially flat ones. The DOS and spatial charge distributions clearly indicate the critical orbital hybridizations in O-O, C-O and C-C bonds, being responsible for the diversified properties.

Substrate-induced structures of bismuth adsorption on graphene: a first principles study.

The geometric and electronic properties of Bi-adsorbed monolayer graphene, enriched by the strong effect of a substrate, are investigated by first-principles calculations. The six-layered substrate, corrugated buffer layer, and slightly deformed monolayer graphene are all simulated. Adatom arrangements are thoroughly studied by analyzing the ground-state energies, bismuth adsorption energies, and Bi-Bi interaction energies of different adatom heights, inter-adatom distance, adsorption sites, and hexagonal positions. A hexagonal array of Bi atoms is dominated by the interactions between the buffer layer and the monolayer graphene. An increase in temperature can overcome a ∼50 meV energy barrier and induce triangular and rectangular nanoclusters. The most stable and metastable structures agree with the scanning tunneling microscopy measurements. The density of states exhibits a finite value at the Fermi level, a dip at ∼-0.2 eV, and a peak at ∼-0.6 eV, as observed in the experimental measurements of the tunneling conductance.

H-Si bonding-induced unusual electronic properties of silicene: a method to identify hydrogen concentration.

Hydrogenated silicenes possess peculiar properties owing to the strong H-Si bonds, as revealed by an investigation using first principles calculations. Various charge distributions, bond lengths, energy bands, and densities of states strongly depend on different hydrogen configurations and concentrations. The competition between strong H-Si bonds and weak sp(3) hybridization dominate the electronic properties. Chair configurations belong to semiconductors, while the top configurations show a nearly dispersionless energy band at the Fermi level. Both the systems display H-related partially flat bands at middle energy and the recovery of low-lying π bands during the reduction of concentration. Their densities of states exhibit prominent peaks at middle energy, and the top systems have a delta-funtion-like peak at E = 0. The intensity of these peaks is gradually weakened as the concentration decreases, providing an effective method to identify the H-concentration in scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments.

Adatom bond-induced geometric and electronic properties of passivated armchair graphene nanoribbons.

The geometric and electronic properties of passivated armchair graphene nanoribbons, enriched by strong chemical bonding between edge-carbons and various adatoms, are investigated by first-principle calculations. Adatom arrangements, bond lengths, charge distributions, and energy dispersions are dramatically changed by edge passivation. Elements with an atomic number of less than 20 are classified into three types depending on the optimal geometric structures: planar and non-planar structures, the latter of which are associated with specific arrangements and stacked configurations of adatoms. Especially, the nitrogen passivated nanoribbon is the most stable one with a heptagon-pentagon structure at the edges. The low-lying band structures are drastically varied, exhibiting non-monotonous energy dispersions and adatom-dominated bands. A relationship between energy gaps and ribbon widths no longer exists, and some adatoms further induce a semiconductor-metal transition. All the main characteristics are directly reflected in the density of states, revealing dip structures, plateaus, symmetric peaks, and square-root divergent asymmetric peaks.

Fundamental features of AlCl4 --/AlCl4-graphite intercalation compounds of aluminum-ion-based battery cathodes.

Up to now, many guest atoms/molecules/ions have been successfully synthesized into graphite to form various compounds. For example, alkali-atom graphite intercalation compounds are verified to reveal stage-n structures, including LiC6n and LiM8n [M = K, Rb, and Cs; n = 1, 2, 3; 4]. On the other side, AlCl4 --ion/AlCl4-molecule compounds are found to show stage-4 and stage-3 structures at room and lower temperatures, respectively. Stage-1 and stage-2 configurations, with the higher intercalant concentrations, cannot be synthesized in experimental laboratories. This might arise from the fact that it is quite difficult to build periodical arrangements along the longitudinal z and transverse directions simultaneously for large ions or molecules. Our work is mainly focused on stage-1 and stage-2 systems in terms of geometric and electronic properties. The critical features, being associated with the atom-dominated energy spectra and wave functions within the specific energy ranges, the active multi-orbital hybridization in distinct chemical bonds, and atom- & orbital-decomposed van Hove singularities, will be thoroughly clarified by the delicate simulations and analyses.

Diversified Phenomena in Metal- and Transition-Metal-Adsorbed Graphene Nanoribbons.

Adatom-adsorbed graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have gained much attention owing to the tunable electronic and magnetic properties. The metal (Bi, Al)/transition metal (Ti, Fe, Co, Ni) atoms could provide various outermost orbitals for the multi-orbital hybridizations with the out-of-plane π bondings on the carbon honeycomb lattice, which dominate the fundamental properties of chemisorption systems. In this study, the significant similarities and differences among Bi-/Al-/Ti-/Fe-/Co-/Ni-adsorbed GNRs are thoroughly investigated by using the first-principles calculations. The main characterizations include the adsorption sites, bond lengths, stability, band structures, charge density distributions, spin- and orbital-projected density of states, and magnetic configurations. Furthermore, there exists a transformation from finite gap semiconducting to metallic behaviors, accompanied by the nonmagnetism, antiferromagnetism, or ferromagnetism. They arise from the cooperative or competitive relations among the significant chemical bonds, finite-size quantum confinement, edge structure, and spin-dependent many-body effects. The proposed theoretical framework could be further improved and generalized to explore other emergent 1D and 2D materials.

Feature-Rich Geometric and Electronic Properties of Carbon Nanoscrolls.

How to form carbon nanoscrolls with non-uniform curvatures is worthy of a detailed investigation. The first-principles method is suitable for studying the combined effects due to the finite-size confinement, the edge-dependent interactions, the interlayer atomic interactions, the mechanical strains, and the magnetic configurations. The complex mechanisms can induce unusual essential properties, e.g., the optimal structures, magnetism, band gaps and energy dispersions. To reach a stable spiral profile, the requirements on the critical nanoribbon width and overlapping length will be thoroughly explored by evaluating the width-dependent scrolling energies. A comparison of formation energy between armchair and zigzag nanoscrolls is useful in understanding the experimental characterizations. The spin-up and spin-down distributions near the zigzag edges are examined for their magnetic environments. This accounts for the conservation or destruction of spin degeneracy. The various curved surfaces on a relaxed nanoscroll will create complicated multi-orbital hybridizations so that the low-lying energy dispersions and energy gaps are expected to be very sensitive to ribbon width, especially for those of armchair systems. Finally, the planar, curved, folded, and scrolled graphene nanoribbons are compared with one another to illustrate the geometry-induced diversity.

Featured properties of Li+-based battery anode: Li4Ti5O12.

3D ternary Li4Ti5O12, a Li+-based battery anode, presents an unusual lattice symmetry (triclinic crystal), band structure, charge density, and density of states under first-principles calculations. It is a large direct-gap semiconductor with E d g ∼ 2.98 eV. The atom-dominated valence and conduction bands, the spatial charge distribution and the atom- and orbital-decomposed van Hove singularities are available for delicate identifications of multi-orbital hybridizations in Li-O and Ti-O bonds. The extremely non-uniform chemical environment, which induces very complicated hopping integrals, directly arises from the large bonding fluctuations and the highly anisotropic configurations. Also, the developed theoretical framework is very useful for fully understanding cathodes and electrolytes of oxide compounds.

Essential geometric and electronic properties in stage-n graphite alkali-metal-intercalation compounds.

The rich and unique properties of the stage-n graphite alkali-metal-intercalation compounds are fully investigated by first-principles calculations. According to the main features, the lithium and non-lithium (Na, K, Rb, Cs) systems are quite different from each other in stacking configurations, intercalant alkali-metal-atom concentrations, free conduction electron densities, atom-dominated and (carbon, alkali metal)-co-dominated energy bands, and interlayer charge density distributions. The close relations between the alkali-metal-doped metallic behaviors and the geometric symmetries are clarified through the interlayer atomic interactions. The stage-1 graphite alkali-metal-intercalation compounds possess the highest charge distribution for all stage-n types; moreover, those of the lithium systems are greater than those of the non-lithium systems. The lithium systems also have the largest blue shift of the Fermi level among all alkali metal systems.

Alkali-created rich properties in grapheme nanoribbons: Chemical bondings.

The alkali-adsorbed graphene nanoribbons exhibit the feature-rich electronic and magnetic properties. From the first-principles calculations, there are only few adatom-dominated conduction bands, and the other conduction and valence bands are caused by carbon atoms. A lot of free electrons are revealed in the occupied alkali- and carbon-dependent conduction bands. Energy bands are sensitive to the concentration, distribution and kind of adatom and the edge structure, while the total linear free carrier density only relies on the first one. These mainly arise from a single s - 2p z orbital hybridization in the adatom-carbon bond. Specifically, zigzag systems can present the anti-ferromagnetic ordering across two edges, ferromagnetic ordering along one edge and non-magnetism, being reflected in the edge-localized energy bands with or without spin splitting. The diverse energy dispersions contribute many special peaks in density of states. The critical chemical bonding and the distinct spin configuration could be verified from the experimental measurements.

Geometric and electronic properties of edge-decorated graphene nanoribbons.

Edge-decorated graphene nanoribbons are investigated with the density functional theory; they reveal three stable geometric structures. The first type is a tubular structure formed by the covalent bonds of decorating boron or nitrogen atoms. The second one consists of curved nanoribbons created by the dipole-dipole interactions between two edges when decorated with Be, Mg, or Al atoms. The final structure is a flat nanoribbon produced due to the repulsive force between two edges; most decorated structures belong to this type. Various decorating atoms, different curvature angles, and the zigzag edge structure are reflected in the electronic properties, magnetic properties, and bonding configurations. Most of the resulting structures are conductors with relatively high free carrier densities, whereas a few are semiconductors due to the zigzag-edge-induced anti-ferromagnetism.