Antimonene: A Promising Candidate for SF Decomposition Gas Sensors with High Sensitivity and High Stability

The sensing performance of antimonene towards SF6 decomposition gases was investigated by first principles calculations in this paper. By analyzing the adsorption energy, charge transfer, work function variation, and density of states (DOS), we concluded that antimonene is sensitive and selective to the SF6 decomposition gas product SO2. Unlike previous studies, the effect of Stone-Wales (SW) defects and biaxial strain on the sensing performance of antimonene was also explored, indicating that SW defects can expand the range of available antimonene sensor structures and that antimonene is highly stable to biaxial strain. As stability is one of the main challenges that hinders the practical application of sensing materials, we concluded that anitmonene would be a promising candidate for the development of SF6 decomposition gas sensors with high sensitivity and stability that could replace other sensitive but unstable two dimensional materials such as phosphorene.