Review on 2D Arsenene and Antimonene: Emerging Materials for Energy, Electronic and Biological Applications

Abstract

Monoelemental 2D materials such as arsenene (As) and antimonene (Sb) are creating great interest in materials research (since 2014) for designing various optoelectronic devices, energy production, and storage systems such as sensors, electrically modifiable displays, transistors, and catalysts owing to their unique properties like high surface area, optical, electrical, mechanical properties, and bio‐compatibility. Here in, an attempt has been made to write a comprehensive review on recent progress of monoelemental arsenene and antimonene focusing on tuning of properties through various techniques and their potential applications in different fields. The review is designed to explain the fundamental structures and properties in the beginning, followed by different preparation methods like exfoliation, ball milling, molecular beam epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition, and plasma‐assisted synthesis. Furthermore, the details on density functional theory studies of As an Sb and their applications in various fields such as photocatalysis, electronic and optoelectronic fields, solar cells, hydrogen evolution reaction, supercapacitors, batteries, biological applications, sensing, and electrochemical devices are reported.

Emerging 2D pnictogens: a novel multifunctional photonic nanoplatform for cutting-edge precision treatment

“…25 Although monolayer of arsenene has indirect band gaps, they can be changed to direct band gaps by applying electric fields or strains, which facilitates their application in light-emitting devices. 26 By varying the experimental conditions, it is possible to obtain 2D arsenene with band gaps from 0.175 eV to 2.49 eV. 27 Pure arsenene is not stable in the environment and is prone to oxidation, but can be improved by surface modification.…”

Atomically Thin Semiconductor TiPtGe and Heterostructure of β-Antimonene/TiPtGe: A First-Principles Study

“…Antimonene, especially the thermodynamically most stable rhombohedral, buckled honeycomb structured β-antimonene (β-Sb), has recently attracted increasing research interest due to its layer-dependent semimetal to semiconductor transition, high carrier mobility, strain-tunable indirect-to-direct bandgap transition, the possibility of two-dimensional (2D) topological insulating behavior, and high stability toward water and oxygen. − Heterostructures based on β-Sb, which may be promising functional materials, have also received much considerable attention; , for example, the heterostructures of β-Sb with materials, such as graphene, − single-element 2D materials (Xenes), − transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), − and some other 2D/3D materials. − Currently, most of the reported antimonene based heterostructures reported are composed of antimonene in combination with some notable 2D materials, ,,,,− and relatively little is known in the field of antimonene heterostructures.…”

Mechanical characteristics and failure behavior of puckered and buckled allotropes of antimonene nanotubes: a molecular dynamics study

“…55,56 Because of these outstanding characteristics, researchers investigated the application of antimonene in several nanomaterial applications such as supercapacitors, batteries, solar cells, hydrogen evolution reaction, photocatalysis, biological applications, and sensing devices. [57][58][59][60][61] For example, Yeoh et al performed systematic investigations on the electronic, magnetic, and structural properties of halogen atoms adsorbed on b-antimonene at various coverage levels through DFT calculations. 62 In a different study, Su et al 63 investigated antimonene as a promising flexible anode material for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its low price, high specific capacity, excellent rate capability, long cycle performance, and moderate operating voltage.…”