Electro-Optical Properties of Monolayer and Bilayer Pentagonal BN: First Principles Study

Two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is an insulator with polar covalent B-N bonds. Monolayer and bilayer pentagonal BN emerge as an optoelectronic material, which can be used in photo-based devices such as photodetectors and photocatalysis. Herein, we implement spin polarized electron density calculations to extract electronic/optical properties of mono- and bilayer pentagonal BN structures, labeled as <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>B</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msub> <msub> <mi>N</mi> <mn>4</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>B</mi> <mn>3</mn> </msub> <msub> <mi>N</mi> <mn>3</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>, and <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>B</mi> <mn>4</mn> </msub> <msub> <mi>N</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>. Unlike the insulating hBN, the pentagonal BN exhibits metallic or semiconducting behavior, depending on the detailed pentagonal structures. The origin of the metallicity is attributed to the delocalized boron (B) 2p electrons, which has been verified by electron localized function and electronic band structure as well as density of states. Interestingly, all 3D networks of different bilayer pentagonal BN are dynamically stable unlike 2D structures, whose monolayer <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>B</mi> <mn>4</mn> </msub> <msub> <mi>N</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> is unstable. These 3D materials retain their metallic and semiconductor nature. Our findings of the optical properties indicate that pentagonal BN has a visible absorption peak that is suitable for photovoltaic application. Metallic behavior of pentagonal BN has a particular potential for thin-film based devices and nanomaterial engineering.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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