Using first-principles theory, this paper investigates the sensing behavior of the Ru-doped PtSe2 (Ru-PtSe2) monolayer for two dominant gases, namely, H2 and C2H2, in the transformer oil to explore its potential as a gas sensor to evaluate the operation status of the electrical transformers. Ru-doping prefers to go through the S1 site with the largest E b of -3.71 eV. Chemisorption is identified in the H2 and C2H2 systems with E ad obtained as -0.83 and - 2.09 eV, respectively, indicating the stronger performance of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer upon C2H2 adsorption. Meanwhile, the obvious improvement of bandgap in the C2H2 system suggests the potential of Ru-PtSe2 monolayer as a resistance-type gas sensor for C2H2 detection. Moreover, the applied biaxial strains ranging at 1-5% give rise to various Q T and E g in two systems, indicating the tunable sensing response of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer for gas detection with modulated strains. Our calculation proposes a novel 2D sensing material for H2 and C2H2 detection, which would be beneficial to stimulate more edge-cutting research in the gas sensing field as well.
Using first-principles theory, this paper investigates the sensing behavior of the Ru-dopedPtSe2 (Ru-PtSe2) monolayer for two dominant gases, namely, H2 and C2H2, in the transformer oil to explore its potential as a gas sensor to evaluate the operation status of the electrical transformers. Ru-doping prefers to go through the S1 site with the largest E b of -3.71 eV. Chemisorption is identified in the H2 and C2H2 systems with E ad obtained as -0.83 and - 2.09 eV, respectively, indicating the stronger performance of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer upon C2H2 adsorption. Meanwhile, the obvious improvement of bandgap in the C2H2 system suggests the potential of Ru-PtSe2 monolayer as a resistance-type gas sensor for C2H2 detection. Moreover, the applied biaxial strains ranging at 1-5% give rise to various Q T and E g in two systems, indicating the tunable sensing response of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer for gas detection with modulated strains. Our calculation proposes a novel 2D sensing material for H2 and C2H2 detection, which would be beneficial to stimulate more edge-cutting research in the gas sensing field as well.
Electrical
transformers are the most significant equipment in the
power system for electricity transition and transmission, over 90%
of which employs the mineral oilas the insulation medium to ensure
their safe operation.[1,2] In the long run, the oil under
some inevitable insulation defects such as partial discharge and partial
overheat will decompose into several gas species including H2, CH4, C2H2, CO, and C2H4 dissolving into the oil.[3] Among these gas species, H2 and C2H2 account for the dominant content and are widely used as the typical
gases to evaluate the operation status of the transformers.[4] Therefore, realizing the sensitive detection
of such two typical gases becomes the focus of attention in the field
of electrical engineering to conduct the daily maintenance and to
banish any latent breakdowns of the transformers as early as possible.[5−8]With the improvement of 2D-layered materials in recent years,
the
research in the gas sensing field makes great progress as well since
the 2D materials with a large surface area and favorable carrier mobility
can perform strong chemical reactivity to the gas species, making
them appropriate as sensing materials with high sensitivity.[9,10] Very recently, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with tunable
electronic behavior are widely studied asgas sensing materials, and
their responses are also adjustable by modulating the gate voltage
or biaxial strains.[11,12] Among these TMDs, PtSe2 is reported exhibiting a semiconducting property with a bandgap
of about 1.2 eV in its monolayer form,[13] and it has been theoretically predicted to have a strong potential
to be a field-effect transistor sensor.[14] Also, a first-principles calculation has proven that the PtSe2 monolayer has outstanding sensing behavior upon gas molecules
with favorable resistance response under biaxial strain.[15] However, the binding force between the gas molecules
and the pristine PtSe2 surface is still quite weak (0.1–0.5
eV) to cause enough charge transfer for their sensitive detections,
especially in some harsh environments.To promote the adsorption
performance of the sensing materials,
transition metal (TM) doping is proposed to enhance the chemical reactivity
and catalytic behavior of the nano-surfaces.[16,17] From this regard, the binding force and charge-transfer between
the gas molecules and sensing adsorbent can be improved to guarantee
higher sensitivity for the targeted gases.[18,19] It has been reported that ruthenium (Ru) has strong catalytic behavior
and desirable chemical reactivity in the gas interactions, exerting
remarkable promotion for the performance of gas sensing and catalysis.[20,21] Thus, we proposed a Ru-dopedPtSe2 (Ru-PtSe2) monolayer in this work to investigate its sensing potential for
H2 and C2H2 based on first-principles
theory. Our work from the aspect of theoretical prediction attempts
to explore a novel sensing material for evaluation of the operation
status of the transformers. Such theoretical calculations based on
computational science have been proven as a workable and highly effective
approach to this end.[22,23] Moreover, we are hopeful that
our results would be helpful to provide guidance for further experimental
researches in the field of 2D sensing materials.
Results
and Discussion
Ru-Doping on the PtSe2 Monolayer
The Ru-PtSe2 monolayer is determined
by doping one Ru
atom on the pristine PtSe2 monolayer, on which we consider
three possible sites, as exhibited in Figure a. The binding energy (Eb) is used to evaluate the binding force between the Rudopant and PtSe2 monolayer, as calculated bywhere ERu-PtSe, ERu, and EPtSe are
the total
energies of the Ru-PtSe2, single Ru atom, and pristine
PtSe2 monolayer, respectively. According to our geometric
optimization, it is found that the Ru dopant preferred to be trapped
on the S1 site, namely the top of the second-layered Pt
atom, with the largest Eb obtained. The
related structure would be called as the stable configuration (MSC)
of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer, as plotted in Figure b. Moreover, the charge density
difference (CDD) of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer is plotted in Figure cas well to illustrate
the bonding nature during Ru doping on the pristine PtSe2 surface.
Figure 1
Structures of (a) PtSe2 monolayer. (b, c) MSC and CDD
of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer. In CDD, the green (purple) areas
are electron accumulation (depletion) with an isosurface of 0.01 e/Å3.
Structures of (a) PtSe2 monolayer. (b, c) MSC and CDD
of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer. In CDD, the green (purple) areas
are electron accumulation (depletion) with an isosurface of 0.01 e/Å3.Based on our definition, the Eb is
obtained as −3.71 eV for Ru-doping on the S1 site,
whereas it is 1.60 eV for the S2 site and – 2.91
eV for the S3 site, respectively. After doping, the Rudopant is bonded with three Se atoms on the first layer of the PtSe2 monolayer, forming three Ru–Se bonds measured equivalently
as 2.39 Å, slightly shorter than the sum covalent radii of Ru
and Se atoms (2.41 Å[24]). In addition,
the structure of the PtSe2 supercell is somewhat deformed
after Ru doping, wherein the Pt–Se bonds are slightly elongated
to 2.58–2.72 Å from that of 2.54 Å in the pristine
counterpart. These findings indicate the strong binding force for
Ru doping on the PtSe2 surface, which leads to the stable
formation of Ru–Se bonds accordingly. According to the Hirshfeld
analysis, the Ru dopant is positively charged by 0.085 e in the Ru–PtSe2 system, suggesting its electron-donating behavior when interacting
with the PtSe2 surface, which behaves as the electron acceptor
instead. From the CDD, the electron accumulation is mainly localized
on the Ru–Se bonds, while the electron depletion is mainly
on the Ru dopant, which supports the electron-releasing behavior of
the Ru dopant and the strong electron hybridization on the Ru–Se
bonds.The electron-donating behavior of the Ru dopant will
exert a significant
impact on the electronic behavior of the PtSe2 monolayer.
To expound this issue more visually, Figure gives the band structure (BS) and density
of state (DOS) of the Ru-PtSe2 system. As reported, the
pristine PtSe2 monolayer is an indirect semiconductor with
a bandgap of about 1.2 eV.[15] In this work,
it is found from Figure a that the bandgap of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer is obtained
as 0.009 eV, quite a small value indicating its metallic-like electrical
conductivity. Meanwhile, the top of the valence band is localized
on the Γ point, while the bottom of the conduction band is localized
on the K point, which manifests the indirect semiconducting property
of the Ru-PtSe2 system. That is, Ru doping significantly
enhances the electrical conductivity of the PtSe2 monolayer
but does not modify its indirect semiconducting property. From Figure b where the DOS of
pristine and Ru-dopedPtSe2 systems are shown, it is seen
that there is a large bandgap over the Fermi level of the pristine
PtSe2 system, while the DOS of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer
is almost continuous at the Fermi level, verifying its strong electrical
conductivity. This could be attributed to the remarkable state contribution
from the Ru dopant, which exerts a large impact around the Fermi level.
In addition, the DOS of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer is left-shifted
compared with the pristine counterpart, which results from the electron-accepting
behavior of the PtSe2 surface from the Ru dopant that improves
the effective Coulomb potential accordingly.[25] In terms of the formation of Ru–Se bonds, Figure c gives the electronic evidence.
One can see in this figure that the Ru 4d orbital is highly hybrid
with the Se 3p orbital at −7.5 to 1.2 eV, which illustrates
the strong electron hybridization between the Ru and Se atoms and
leads to a strong orbital interaction on the Ru–Se bonds.[26]
Figure 2
(a) BS of the Ru-PtSe2 system, (b) DOS comparison,
and
(c) orbital DOS. The value in the BS is the bandgap, and the dashed
line in DOS is the Fermi level.
(a) BS of the Ru-PtSe2 system, (b) DOS comparison,
and
(c) orbital DOS. The value in the BS is the bandgap, and the dashed
line in DOS is the Fermi level.
Gas Adsorption on the Ru-PtSe2 Monolayer
The adsorption behavior of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer upon
H2 and C2H2 is conducted to study
its sensing performance upon the targeted gaseous species. At the
same time, the adsorption of CH4 and C2H4 are also studied for better comparison since they are also
the gas species in the transformer oil and may affect the adsorption
of H2 and C2H2. Figure plots the MSC and CDD of the
H2 and C2H2 systems, and Figure S1 plots the MSC of the CH4 and C2H4 systems. It is found that the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer exhibits weak interactions with CH4 and
C2H4 molecules, with small Ead (−0.16 eV for the CH4 system and
−0.77 eV for the C2H4 system) identified
as physisorption for the adsorption systems. Thus, it could be assumed
that they can exert small impact on the sensing of H2 and
C2H2 in the mixed gas environment given their
small content, which would be not be analyzed in detail in the following
sections.
Figure 3
MSC and CDD of (a) H2 and (b) C2H2 adsorption on the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer. The set in CDD
is the same as that in Figure .
MSC and CDD of (a) H2 and (b) C2H2 adsorption on the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer. The set in CDD
is the same as that in Figure .In the H2 system, one
can see that the H2 molecule standing on the top-left corner
of the Ru dopant is captured
by two new-formed Ru–H bonds, with bond lengths of 1.68 and
1.69 Å, respectively. The H–H bond of the H2 molecule is broken after adsorption, with an atomic distance of
0.97 Å, much larger than that in its isolated gas phase of 0.75
Å. At the same time, the Ru–Se bonds are elongated to
2.40, 2.42, and 2.49 Å, respectively. These geometric deformations
suggest the strong binding force between the Ru dopant and the H2 molecule that leads to the remarkable activation in their
structures.[27] Moreover, the large Ead of −0.83 eV also confirms the strong
binding force for H2 adsorption on the Ru-PtSe2 surface. According to the Hirshfeld analysis, 0.041 e is transferred
from the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer to the H2 molecule,
and the Ru dopant is positively charged by 0.054 e. These results
manifest that Ru dopant accepts 0.031 e from the PtSe2 monolayer
while the PtSe2 monolayer loses 0.072 e in total during
H2S adsorption. In the CDD, one can see that the electron
accumulation is mainly localized on the Ru–H bonds and the
Ru dopant, and the electron depletions are mainly on the H–H
bond and the Ru–Se bonds. These verify not only the formation
of Ru–H bonds where the electron localization occurs and the
breakage of H–H bond where electron is depleted but also the
electron-accepting behavior of the Ru dopant in H2 adsorption.[28]For C2H2 adsorption
onto the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer, it is seen that the C2H2 molecule is trapped on the top of the Ru dopant
through two Ru–C
bonds with bond lengths of 2.02 and 2.03 Å, respectively. The
inner C≡C bond in the C2H2 molecule is
elongated to 1.30 Å from that of 1.21 Å in its gas phase.
Meanwhile, the C2H2 molecule is distorted after
adsorption, in which the two C–H bonds turn upward, making
such a linear molecule deformed instead. In addition, the Ru–Se
bonds of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer experience somewhat elongation
as well, measured as 2.43, 2.43, and 2.51 Å, respectively. Thus,
the further elongation of Ru–Se bonds and the deformation in
the C2H2 molecule in this system compared with
that of the H2 system implies the strong binding force
of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer for C2H2 adsorption. The much larger Ead of −2.09
eV supports such assumption strongly, which is over 2.5 times than
the Ead of −0.83 eV for the H2 system. According to the Hirshfeld analysis, 0.049 e is transferred
to the C2H2 molecule, and the Ru dopant is positively
charged by 0.094 e. These findings imply the electron-accepting behavior
of the C2H2 molecule and electron-donating behavior
of the Ru dopant and PtSe2 monolayer, which lose 0.009
and 0.040 e, respectively, in this system. From the CDD, the electron
accumulation is mainly localized on the Ru–C bonds, and the
electron depletions are mainly on the Ru–Se and C≡C
bonds, which confirms the formation of Ru–C bonds and weakness
of the Ru–Se and C≡C bonds.Given the large values
of Ead in two
systems, we can infer that the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer conducts
strong chemisorption upon H2 and C2H2,[29] especially for the C2H2 in which the Ead is over 2.5
times than that of H2. Moreover, to highlight the enhancement
of Ru doping for gas adsorption, we perform the adsorption of H2 and C2H2 on the pristine PtSe2 monolayer with the MSC shown in Figure S2. One can see that the Ead for H2 and C2H2 adsorption are obtained as
−0.07 and – 0.17 eV, with the adsorption distance of
3.65 and 3.75 Å, respectively. Such findings illustrate the desirable
enhancement of the Ru dopant for gas adsorption. In other words, the
Ru dopant exerts strong catalytic behavior in the gas interaction
and promotes the adsorption strength around the Ru center. In addition,
the Ru dopant behaves as an electron acceptor in the H2 system and electron donator in the C2H2 system.
Thus, it could be assumed that the Ru dopant is an electron bridge
connecting the charge transfer between the PtSe2 surface
and the gas molecules. Also, the charge transfer would lead to the
electron redistribution in the Ru-PtSe2 system, which in
return can deform its electronic behavior accordingly. We would highlight
this part of analysis in the next section.Since in some moist
environment the adsorption behavior of the
Ru-PtSe2 monolayer upon H2 and C2H2 would also be affected, this work conducts the simulations
of H2 and C2H2 adsorption onto the
Ru-PtSe2 surface with a H2O molecule pre-adsorbed
to analyze the impact of the humidity in the atmosphere on gas adsorptions.
The MSC for H2O adsorption and H2/H2O and C2H2/H2Oco-adsorption is
exhibited in Figure . It is found that the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer exhibits good
adsorption behavior upon the H2O with an Ead of −0.91 eV. However, the adsorption behavior
upon H2 and C2H2 somewhat declined
with the pre-adsorbed H2O, compared with the isolated Ru-PtSe2 systems. These findings suggested that the existence of moisture
would weaken the sensing behavior of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer,
and the scavenging of humidity is important to guarantee the good
sensing response for gas detection instead.
Figure 4
MSC of (a) H2O adsorption, (b) H2/H2O co-adsorption, and
(c) C2H2/H2O co-adsorption.
MSC of (a) H2O adsorption, (b) H2/H2Oco-adsorption, and
(c) C2H2/H2Oco-adsorption.
Electronic Property upon
Gas Adsorption
To analyze the electronic behavior of the
Ru-PtSe2 monolayer
upon H2 and C2H2 adsorption, we display
the BS and DOS of two systems in Figure . The molecular DOS of the gases before and
after gas adsorption is analyzed to illustrate the electronic activation
upon the gas molecules, while the orbital DOS of the bonded atoms
is analyzed to illustrate the orbital interactions of these atoms.
Figure 5
BS and
DOS of (a1–a3) H2 system and (b1–b3)
C2H2 system.
BS and
DOS of (a1–a3) H2 system and (b1–b3)
C2H2 system.In the BS of H2 and C2H2 systems,
one can see that the bandgaps are calculated to be 0.071 and 0.141
eV, respectively, much larger than that of 0.009 eV in the pure Ru-PtSe2 system, indicating the reduced electrical conductivity of
the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer after H2 and C2H2 adsorptions. In addition, the top of the valence and
the bottom of the conduction band are both localized on the K point
in the H2 system and are both localized on the Γ
point in the C2H2 system, implying that adsorption
of H2 and C2H2 would alter the indirect
semiconducting property of the Ru-PtSe2 system. Moreover,
the much larger bandgap in the C2H2 system compared
with that in the H2 system suggests the better sensing
response of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer upon C2H2.In the molecular DOS of H2 and C2H2, it is found that their DOS stats are afflicted with
remarkable
deformations after adsorption, in which the states are split into
several smaller states and left-shifted to a region below the Fermi
level. This may be attributed to the electronic activation upon the
gas molecules caused by the orbital interaction, and the activated
states would contribute to the total DOS effectively, which then deform
the electronic behavior of the whole system. Apart from that, it is
the activated states of the gas molecules that hybridize with the
Ru dopant that facilitates the formation of new bonds where the orbital
interaction occurs.[30] From the atomic DOS,
one can see that the Ru 4d orbital is in hybrid with the H 1s orbital
at −7.9, −1.1, and 0–0.5 eV in the H2 system, while it is in hybrid with the C 2p orbital at −8.5,
−4.4, −3.1, and −0.2 to 1.2 eV in the C2H2 system. The hybrid peaks are where the activated peaks
of the gas molecules localized in the adsorbed system, which verifies
the assumption above. In addition, these hybridizations also manifest
the orbital interactions on the Ru–H and Ru–C bonds,
confirming their strong binding force.
Resistance-Type
Sensor Exploration
The above analysis manifests that the
electronic behavior of the
Ru-PtSe2 monolayer would be deformed after H2 and C2H2 adsorptions, wherein the improvement
of the bandgap can provide the basic evidence for the decline of its
electrical conductivity in the gas environment, as evaluated in the
following formula:[31]wherein σ is electrical
conductivity, λ is a constant, Bg is the bandgap, k is the Boltzmann constant, and T is temperature. Based on our calculations, the bandgap
is increased by 0.062 and 0.132 eV in the H2 and C2H2 systems, respectively. Therefore, one can predict
that the decline of electrical conductivity in the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer would be detectable in the C2H2 system,
while the sensing response in the H2 system is not convincing
given the slight shake in its bandgap. This provides the basic sensing
mechanism for exploration of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer as
a resistance-type gas sensor for C2H2 detection
with favorable electrical response, which would be much higher than
that for H2, CH4, and C2H4 detection. However, the selective detection for the C2H2 in the mixed gas environment including such four gas
species is not able to be realized using such a sensing material.
Therefore, the separation of mixed gases in the transformer oil is
essential to realize the effective detection of C2H2 and to evaluate the operation status of the transformers.In addition, the recovery time of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer
is also an important parameter to evaluate its repeatability for gas
detection, which can be calculated based on the van’t Hoff–Arrhenius
equation:where A is
the attempt frequency (1012 s–1), T is temperature, and KB is
the Boltzmann constant (8.318 × 10–3 kJ/(mol·K)). Ea is determined to be equal asEad in this work. From this formula, the H2 desorption
from the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer would be feasible at room temperature
(298 K) with a time of 95.6 s, and C2H2 desorption
would be quite difficult. Through the increase in temperature, it
is found that the recovery time for the C2H2 system can be decreased to 2.3 × 1011 s at 450 K
and to 1046.7 s at 700 K. That is, the reusability of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer for C2H2 sensing becomes
possible with a desorption temperature of 700 K.However, the
increase in temperature causes the stability of the
Ru-PtSe2 monolayer to be another issue. Thus, we perform
the molecular dynamic simulation for the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer
during the period of 1 ps (1000 fs) at 450 and 700 K to verify its
thermostability, with related geometries shown in Figure S3. One can see from this figure that the Ru-PtSe2 surface suffers somewhat deformations at the high temperatures,
wherein the Ru dopant experiences slight displacement. Nevertheless,
the morphology of the system is not significantly impacted, without
bond breakage after simulations. These results manifest the desirable
thermostability of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer at 450 and 700
K. At the same time, the vibrational analysis implies that the frequency
of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer varies at 70.2–679.4 cm–1, which indicates that there has no virtual frequency
in the system, further verifying the good chemical stability of the
Ru-PtSe2 monolayer. All these analyses above prove the
strong potential of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer to be a promising
gas sensor with admirable repeatability.
Effect
of Strain upon Gas Adsorption
The ABA structure of the PtSe2 monolayer is strain sensitive
and is a potential piezoelectric material for gas detection.[32] From the theoretical aspect, the adsorption
parameters related to the sensing response can be obtained by modulating
the geometric lattice.[33] In this section,
we adopt various biaxial strains (ε) to study the dependence
of the QT and Eg of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer upon H2 and C2H2 adsorption, as calculated bywhere a0 and a are the
lattice parameters of the
Ru-PtSe2 supercell with and without strain, respectively.
In this work, the strain is set, increasing from 1 to 5%, with lattice
constants of 3.68, 3.65, 3.61, 3.57, and 3.53 Å, respectively.Figure portrays
the schematic of the applied strain the related dependences upon QT and Eg. One can
see that with the increase in strain in the positive direction, the
charge transfer is decreased in the H2 system from 0.049
to 0.068 e as the strain increases from 1 to 5%, while it is increased
in the C2H2 system from 0.041 to 0.018 e as
the strain increases at the same range. Although such two gases still
retain the electron-accepting property, it is predictable that the
charge-transferring path in the H2 system would be conversed
if the applied strain continually increases. When it comes to the
bandgap of the gas-adsorbed systems, one can see that it is decreased
with the increase in the applied strain, and the C2H2 system is more likely to be affected by the varying of the
strains, which experiences a much larger range of 0.141–0 eV
compared with that of 0.071–0.034 eV in the H2 system
as the strain increases from 1 to 5%. In other words, the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer has stronger sensitivity upon C2H2 detection with the modulation of biaxial strains, though
both systems are strain sensitive to obtain diverse sensing responses.
Figure 6
Effect
of strain on the adsorption parameters of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer.
(a, b) Schematic of applied strain, the direction
of the arrow is the positive strain. (c) Dependence of QT and (d) dependence of Eg.
Effect
of strain on the adsorption parameters of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer.
(a, b) Schematic of applied strain, the direction
of the arrow is the positive strain. (c) Dependence of QT and (d) dependence of Eg.It is interesting to note that
when the biaxial strain reaches
to 5%, the bandgap of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer after C2H2 adsorption is obtained as 0 eV, indicating the
metallic property of the system. To better understand this issue,
the adsorption configuration of the C2H2 system
with a strain of 5% and related BS distribution are displayed in Figure . One can see that
the morphologies of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer suffer somewhat
deformation under 5% strain, but the C2H2 adsorption
configuration is not significantly impacted. In the BS, there is a
state on the bottom of the conduction band crossing the Fermi level,
thus leading to the metallic behavior of this system. These findings
verify the tunable sensing response of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer
for gas detection with modulated strains.
Figure 7
(a) Adsorption configuration
of the C2H2 system
with a strain of 5% and (b) related BS.
(a) Adsorption configuration
of the C2H2 system
with a strain of 5% and (b) related BS.In short, the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer is a potential piezoelectric
material for gas detection to modify the sensing response under various
biaxial strains. Through the modulation of the applied biaxial strain,
the electron redistribution would occur in the adsorption systems,
which will affect the bandgap of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer,
which provides the tunable sensing behavior for gas detections.
Conclusions
In this paper, the first-principles
theory is applied to investigate
the sensing behavior of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer upon H2 and C2H2 so as to explore its potential
as a gas sensor for evaluation of the operation status of the transformer.
A single Ru atom is doped on the pristine PtSe2 surface
to establish the Ru-PtSe2 supercell. The main conclusions
are as follows:The Ru dopant preferred to be trapped
on the S1 site of the PtSe2 surface with an Eb of −3.71 eV, which brings the bandgap
of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer as 0.009 eV.Chemisorption is identified for H2 and C2H2 adsorption on the Ru-PtSe2 surface, and the stronger interaction in the C2H2 system causes larger improvement in the bandgap for
feasible detection.The Ru-PtSe2 monolayer
is a promising piezoelectric material for gas detection via the modulation
of the applied strain, with tunable QT and Eg obtained in various strains.This theoretical report proposes a novel
sensing material for C2H2 detection, which would
be meaningful in the
field of electrical engineering to evaluate the operation status of
the electrical transformers in the power system.
Computational
Details
In this work, the spin-polarized calculations for
structural optimization
and electronic property were all implemented within the DMol3 package.[34] The Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof
(PBE) function within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA)
was adopted to handle the electron exchange-correlation terms.[35] Meanwhile, we used Tkatchenko and Scheffler’s
(TS) method to understand the van der Waals force and long-range interactions.[36] Double numerical plus polarization (DNP) was
determined as the atomic orbital basis set.[4] The Monkhorst pack k-point was sampled to 10 ×
10 × 1 to deal with the geometric optimization and electronic
properties.[37] The energy tolerance accuracy,
maximum force, and displacement were defined as 10–5 Ha, 2 × 10–3 Ha/Å, and 5 × 10–3 Å, respectively,[38] whereas a self-consistent loop energy of 10–6 Ha,
global orbital cut-off radius of 5.0 Å, and smearing of 0.005
Ha were selected for the static electronic calculations to ensure
the accuracy of total energy.[39]We
established a 3 × 3 × 1 supercell for the pristine
PtSe2 monolayer to conduct the whole calculations below,
and a vacuum region of 15 Å was used to prevent possible interactions
between the adjacent units.[40] After geometric
optimization, the lattice constant of the pristine PtSe2 supercell was 3.72 Å, in accordance with that of 3.71 Å
in ref (14). The binding
force between the gas molecule and the Ru-PtSe2 surface
was evaluated by the adsorption energy (Ead), as calculated by[41,42]where ERu-PtSe, ERu-PtSe, and Egas represent the
total energies of the Ru-PtSe2/gas system, pure Ru-PtSe2 system, and isolated gas molecule, respectively. Meanwhile,
we considered the charge transfer (QT)
in the gas adsorption systems by Hirshfeld analysis, whose negative
values indicated the electron-accepting behavior of the adsorbed gas
species. In addition, Hirshfeld analysis would not be affected by
the basic set of the calculations,[26] which
guarantee the good accuracy of our results. To meet the applied condition
of the Ru-PtSe2 monolayer in the power system, the simulations
are all conducted under room temperature, and the effect of temperature
on the sensing behavior is not considered in this work.
Authors: Dattatray J Late; Yi-Kai Huang; Bin Liu; Jagaran Acharya; Sharmila N Shirodkar; Jiajun Luo; Aiming Yan; Daniel Charles; Umesh V Waghmare; Vinayak P Dravid; C N R Rao Journal: ACS Nano Date: 2013-06-03 Impact factor: 15.881