Properties of Blue Phosphorene Nanoribbon-P3HT Polymer Heterostructures: DFT First Principles Calculations

Abstract

Recently, 2D phosphorus allotropes have arisen as possible candidates for technological applications among the family of the so-called Xene layered materials. In particular, the energy band structure of blue phosphorene (BP) exhibits a medium-size semiconductor gap that tends to widen in the case of using this material in the form of ribbons. BP nanoribbons have attracted recent interest for their implication in the improvement in efficiency of novel solar cells. On the other hand, compound poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) is used as the semiconducting core of organic field effect transistors owing to such useful features as high carrier mobility. Here, we theoretically investigate the electronic properties of a heterostructure combination of BP—in the form of nanoribbons—with a P3HT polymer chain on top in order to identify the features of band alignment. The work is performed using first principles calculations via DFT, employing different exchange correlation approaches for comparison: PBE, HSE06 and DFT-1/2. It is found that, under DFT-1/2, such a heterostructure has a type-II band alignment.