RESUMO
The effects of biaxial strain on the impurity-induced magnetism in P-doped graphene (P-graphene) and N-doped silicene (N-silicene) are studied by means of spin-polarized density functional calculations, using the supercell approach. The calculations were performed for three different supercell sizes 4 × 4, 5 × 5, and 6 × 6, in order to simulate three different dopant concentrations 3.1, 2.0 and 1.4%, respectively. For both systems, the calculated magnetic moment is 1.0 µ B per impurity atom for the three studied concentrations. From the analysis of the electronic structure and the total energy as a function of the magnetization, we show that a Stoner-type model describing the electronic instability of the narrow impurity band accounts for the origin of sp-magnetism in P-graphene and N-silicene. Under biaxial strain the impurity band dispersion increases and the magnetic moment gradually decreases, with the consequent collapse of the magnetization at moderate strain values. Thus, we found that biaxial strain induces a magnetic quantum phase transition in P-graphene and N-silicene.
RESUMO
Recent studies suggest that graphene decorated with light metal atoms is a feasible alternative for the design of the next generation of hydrogen storage systems, that is, materials which require a gravimetric content of at least 7.5 wt%, and an adsorption energy of 0.2-0.6 eV per H2. We present a first principles study of hydrogen adsorption in titanium, and bimetallic Ti5-xAlx (x = 1-3) and Ti7-xAlx (x = 1-4) clusters supported on graphene. Our results for Ti5, Ti4Al, Ti7, and Ti6Al show that doping titanium clusters with small amounts of aluminum does not influence the cluster stability on graphene, but that notably, it enhances its hydrogen gravimetric content up to 3.2-3.6 wt%. A further increment of the aluminum concentration was found to reduce the cluster stability and to favor hydrogen desorption, as shown by our calculations for supported Ti3Al2, Ti2Al3, TiAl4 and Ti5Al2. An analysis of atomic charges and density of states reveals the role of charge transfer and orbital interactions in the stability of hydride and dihydrogen complexes in the studied systems. Our results support the hypothesis that a controlled introduction of small metal clusters to graphene is a feasible way to enhance its hydrogen gravimetric content, and it opens up the possibility of investigating other binary TMx-Ay (TM = transition metal and A = main group) clusters supported on graphene as promising candidates for hydrogen storage.
