Abstract |
The structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of pristine, defective, and oxidized monolayer TiS3 are investigated using first-principles calculations in the framework of density functional theory. We found that a single layer of TiS3 is a direct band gap semiconductor, and the bonding nature of the crystal is fundamentally different from other transition metal chalcogenides. The negatively charged surfaces of single layer TiS3 makes this crystal a promising material for lubrication applications. The formation energies of possible vacancies, i.e. S, Ti, TiS, and double S, are investigated via total energy optimization calculations. We found that the formation of a single S vacancy was the most likely one among the considered vacancy types. While a single S vacancy results in a nonmagnetic, semiconducting character with an enhanced band gap, other vacancy types induce metallic behavior with spin polarization of 0.3-0.8 mu(B). The reactivity of pristine and defective TiS3 crystals against oxidation was investigated using conjugate gradient calculations where we considered the interaction with atomic O, O-2, and O-3. While O-2 has the lowest binding energy with 0.05-0.07 eV, O-3 forms strong bonds stable even at moderate temperatures. The strong interaction (3.9-4.0 eV) between atomic O and TiS3 results in dissociative adsorption of some O-containing molecules. In addition, the presence of S-vacancies enhances the reactivity of the surface with atomic O, whereas it had a negative effect on the reactivity with O-2 and O-3 molecules. |
Notes ![sorted by Notes field, ascending order (up)](img/sort_asc.gif) |
; This work was supported by the Flemish Science Foundation (FWO-Vl) and the Methusalem foundation of the Flemish government. Computational resources were provided by TUBITAK ULAKBIM, High Performance and Grid Computing Center (TR-Grid e-Infrastructure), and HPC infrastructure of the University of Antwerp (CalcUA), a division of the Flemish Supercomputer Center (VSC), which is funded by the Hercules foundation. H.S. is supported by a FWO Pegasus Marie Curie Fellowship. RI., H.S., and R.T.S. acknowledge the support from TUBITAK through project 114F397. ; |
Approved |
Most recent IF: 4.536; 2015 IF: 4.772 |