Noble metal (Ag, Au, Pd and Pt) doped TaS2 monolayer for gas sensing: a first-principles investigation.

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) layered nanomaterials have attracted increasing attention in gas sensing due to their graphene-like properties. Although the gas sensing performances of 2D layered semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), including MoS2, WS2, MoSe2 and WSe2, have been extensively studied, it has remained a grand challenge to develop a high-performance gas sensing material that can meet practical applications. Tantalum disulfide (TaS2), as a metallic TMD with low resistance and high current signal, has great promise in high-performance gas sensing. In stark contrast with Mo and W, Ta has a stronger positive charge, which contributes to a higher surface energy to capture gas molecules. Herein, through calculating the adsorption energy, charge transfer, electronic structure, and work function of the adsorption system with first-principles calculations, we first systematically studied the performance of noble metal atom substitution doping on a TaS2 monolayer for toxic nitrogen-containing gas (NH3, NO and NO2) sensing. We found that the TaS2 monolayer exhibits excellent NO sensing performance with an adsorption energy of 0.49 eV and a charge transfer of 0.17 e. However, it has a considerable adsorption energy (-0.22 and -0.39 eV) to NH3 and NO2 molecules, but a low charge transfer (-0.03 and 0.04 e) between the gas molecules and the TaS2 monolayer. To further enhance the gas-sensing performance of the TaS2 monolayer, noble metal atoms (Ag, Au, Pd and Pt) were substitutionally doped into the lattice of the TaS2 monolayer. The results showed that the values of adsorption energy and charge transfer can be significantly improved, and the electronic structure and work function of the doping system has also greatly changed, which makes it much easier to detect the changes in electrical signal due to gas adsorption. Our work indicates that the intrinsic as well as the noble metal doped TaS2 monolayers are promising candidates for high-performance gas sensors.