First-principles calculation of Aun@(ZnS)42(n=6-16) hetero-nanostructure system
来源期刊:Rare Metals2020年第10期
论文作者:Han-Yue Zhao Qing Liu Xiao-Xu Wang Jin-Rong Huo Lu Li Ping Qian Yan-Jing Su
文章页码:1165 - 1173
摘 要:The structure stability and electronic and optical properties of a series of Au@ZnS core-shell nanocomposites with different sizes were investigated theoretically by first-principle calculation based on density functional theory(DFT).A series of Aun@(ZnS)42 structures with different n values from 6 to 16 were optimized and obtained.Based on the core-shell interaction energy and second-order difference of total energy of these structures,it is found that Au13@(ZnS)42 turns out to be the most stable structure.Based on the model of Au13@(ZnS)42,the density of state and charge density difference were studied and provided a deeper understanding of the electronic structures of Au@ZnS.On the other hand,absorption coefficient and dielectric function were investigated to study the optical properties.It is found that an optical absorption peak appears in visible-light region,indicating that the photo-catalytic can be improved prominently due to the optical redshift to visible-light region when forming core-shell structure from ZnS bulk.And the redshift phenomenon accords well with experiment.Furthermore,the electronic structure further confirms the existence of redshift of optical absorption spectrum.
稀有金属(英文版) 2020,39(10),1165-1173
Han-Yue Zhao Qing Liu Xiao-Xu Wang Jin-Rong Huo Lu Li Ping Qian Yan-Jing Su
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering,University of Science and Technology Beijing
Department of Physics,University of Science and Technology Beijing
Corrosion and Protection Center,Key Laboratory for Environmental Fracture (MOE),University of Science and Technology Beijing
作者简介:*Yan-Jing Su,e-mail:yjsu@ustb.edu.cn;
收稿日期:13 November 2018
基金:financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos.2016YFB0700500 and 2018YFB0704300);
Han-Yue Zhao Qing Liu Xiao-Xu Wang Jin-Rong Huo Lu Li Ping Qian Yan-Jing Su
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering,University of Science and Technology Beijing
Department of Physics,University of Science and Technology Beijing
Corrosion and Protection Center,Key Laboratory for Environmental Fracture (MOE),University of Science and Technology Beijing
Abstract:
The structure stability and electronic and optical properties of a series of Au@ZnS core-shell nanocomposites with different sizes were investigated theoretically by first-principle calculation based on density functional theory(DFT).A series of Aun@(ZnS)42 structures with different n values from 6 to 16 were optimized and obtained.Based on the core-shell interaction energy and second-order difference of total energy of these structures,it is found that Au13@(ZnS)42 turns out to be the most stable structure.Based on the model of Au13@(ZnS)42,the density of state and charge density difference were studied and provided a deeper understanding of the electronic structures of Au@ZnS.On the other hand,absorption coefficient and dielectric function were investigated to study the optical properties.It is found that an optical absorption peak appears in visible-light region,indicating that the photo-catalytic can be improved prominently due to the optical redshift to visible-light region when forming core-shell structure from ZnS bulk.And the redshift phenomenon accords well with experiment.Furthermore,the electronic structure further confirms the existence of redshift of optical absorption spectrum.
Keyword:
Core-shell structure; Density functional theory(DFT); Electronic structure; Optical properties; Redshift phenomenon;
Received: 13 November 2018
1 Introduction
Core-shell nanoparticles have received tremendous attentions in materials science and engineering due to the wide application in different areas such as catalysis
Among all kinds of semiconductors,ZnS as one of the most popular photo-catalysts plays an important role in photonics that have been extensively utilized in emission devices,cathodoluminescence,light-emitting diodes and sensors
For example,Chen et al.
However,for the above Au-ZnS nanocomposites,Au nanoparticles exposed to the surrounding environment are likely to suffer from corrosion and thus reduce catalytic activity.Core-shell composite can resist corrosion by insulating the metallic core from its surroundings environment.
For example,Mrinmoy et al.
Nevertheless,there are not many researches about Au@ZnS nanocomposite experimentally and theoretically,and the synthesis of Au@ZnS nanoparticles is still a challenge,although there have been a few successful preparations.Especially,as we can see,most works pay more attention to the experimental process and description of the phenomenon.The theoretical study about the physical mechanism and the explanation of experiment results is still scarce,which has become a major roadblock for the investigation of core-shell structure.In this work,the structural stability and functional properties of a series of Aun@(ZnS)42 (n=6-16) nanocomposites were investigated by density functional theory (DFT) which include finding the most stable nanostructure and studying their electronic and optical properties.
2 Computational methods
In this study,first-principles calculation based on DFT was performed to investigate Ag@ZnS core-shell nanostructure,as implemented in Vienna ab initio simulation package (VASP).The generalized gradient approximation(GGA) methods as described by Perdew,Burke and Ernzerhof (PBE)
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Structural properties of Aun@(ZnS)42 (n=6-16)hetero-nanostructure
3.1.1 Structural properties of Aun@(ZnS)42 (n=6-16)
The multiplicity and indeterminacy of core-shell heterostructure involve huge difficulties in the theoretical investigation of core-shell structure.With the lack of a proper model and the increasing number of atoms,the optimization of obtaining a stable structure in DFT calculation usually fails.Here,a series structures of Aun@(ZnS)42 with different numbers of Au atoms (n) were built.Inspired by the work on Au@ZnO
Fig.1 Converged geometries of a Aun(@(ZnS)42 core-shell nanostructure for n from 6 to 16 and b Au13@(ZnS)42 core-shell nanostructure,where blue,gray and pink balls refer to Au,Zn and S atoms,respectively
To investigate the relative stability among these structures with different sizes of inner core,as shown in Fig.2,the core-shell interaction energy (Ecs) and the second-order difference of total energy (Δ2E) are displayed,respectively.The core-shell interaction energy (Ecs) is defined as:
where TN=n+42 is the total atom number of Aun@(ZnS)42 and En,Ecore and Eshell are the total energy of Aun@(ZnS)42,Aun inner core and (ZnS)42 outer shell,respectively.The second-order differences of total energies(Δ2E) are calculated as:
where En is the total energy and n is the number of Au atoms.
It can be noted that the second-order differences of total energies and core-shell interaction energy are sensitive to the structure stability of nanoparticles.As shown in Fig.2,the core-shell interaction energy reaches a minimum andΔ2E is maximal at Au13@(ZnS)42,indicating that Au13@(ZnS)42 is the most stable structure.It is reported that Au13 cluster is particularly stable which is well-known“magic numbers”
Fig.2 a Core-shell interaction energy (Ecs) and b second-order difference of total energy (A2E) of Aun@(ZnS)42(n=6-16) nanostructures,where minimum Ecs and maximalΔ2E at n=13 indicate that Au13@(ZnS)42 is the most stable structure
The calculated average bond lengths are also demonstrated in Table 1 and compared with bulk ZnS and bulk Au.The results show that the bond lengths of Zn-Zn,Zn-S and Au-Au all decrease compared with that of bulk materials,which means that the outer shell and inner core tend to contract and become denser to form a stable united structure.
3.1.2 Structural properties of Au cluster
In addition,structural properties of Au cluster in shell from the isolated one are also discussed.In Fig.3,the optimized structures of Au13 isolated cluster and Au13 core separated from outer shell are shown,respectively.As can be clearly seen that when putting Au13 cluster in ZnS outer shell,optimized Au13 core shows some deformation compared with the isolated cluster,which is likely attributed to strong interfacial electronic interaction between Au inner core and ZnS outer shell
3.1.3 Interface properties of Au13@(ZnS)42
For core-shell nanostructure,it is of great importance to investigate the interface between Au cluster and ZnS shell,which is closely associated with functions and properties of nanostructure.Au-S and Au-Zn nearest distance atinterface for Au13@(ZnS)42 are shown in Table 2.And charge transfer between core and shell for per Au is also presented.From Table 2,it can be concluded that,except for a few cases,the smaller the Au-S distance or Au-Zn distance is,the more the charge transfer occurs between Au core and ZnS shell.For example,for Au13@(ZnS)42nanostructure,Au2 atom has more charge transfer of 0.159than the average value of 0.117,with corresponding smaller Au-S distance of 0.2676 nm.Another example,Au ll atom has more charge transfer of 0.190,which is corresponding to smaller Au-Zn distance of 0.2611 nm.
Table 1 Calculated average bond length of Zn-S,Zn-Zn and Au-Au for bulk ZnS,bulk Au and Au13@(ZnS)42 core-shell nanostructure,respectively,and experimental bond lengths presented (in brackets)for comparison (nm)
Fig.3 Optimized structures of a Au13 isolated cluster and b Au13core separated from ZnS outer shell
In addition,from core-shell nanostructure in Fig.1,it can be seen that some S atoms move toward the surface,and part of Zn atoms toward internal,which will lead to the atom recombination on the shell.Therefore,Au@ZnS core-shell structure can be approximately regarded as one side for Zn termination and the other side for O termination at the interface of core-shell,which is similar to other work about Ag@ZnO nanostructure
Table 2 Au-S and Au-Zn nearest distance and charge transfer for Au13@(ZnS)42
3.2 Electronic structure properties of Aun@(ZnS)42(n=6-16) hetero-nanostructure
3.2.1 Electronic structure properties of Au13@(ZnS)42(n=6-16) nanostructure
In order to get deep insights into the electronic structure,the spin-polarized electronic densities of states (DOS) of the stable structure Au13@(ZnS)42 and bulk-ZnS structures were all calculated for comparison.Figure 4 shows the total and partial DOS of Au13@(ZnS)42 composite and ZnS bulk structures.The total DOS (TDOS) near Fermi level is displayed as the inset.It is easy to see that there is a great difference in DOS curves between Au13@(ZnS)42 and ZnS bulk structure.From the total DOS curve of Au13@(ZnS)42,it can be found that it is mainly composed of two components.One of them locates at low-energy level region,and S-s,S-p,Zn-d and Au-d orbitals have a large contribution to the DOS.The other one is near the Fermi level,which is mainly originated from S-s,S-p and Zn-s,Au-d orbitals.For bulk ZnS structure,the DOS located at low-energy level mainly comes from the S-s,S-p and Zn-d orbitals,and the energy region near the Fermi level is mainly built up from the S-p state.
Fig.4 Total and partial DOS of a ZnS bulk structure and b Au13@(ZnS)42 core-shell nanostructure,where total DOS (TDOS) near Fermi level is displayed as inset,dotted lines refer to Fermi level with unit of electrons.eV-1
As can be seen from the inset of TDOS of wurtzite ZnS bulk structure,band gap between valence band and conduction band is about 2.3 eV,which is similar to other calculation works,such as 2.232 eV
The above conclusion can be confirmed by the calculated charge density difference,as presented in Fig.5a and b.It can be clearly seen that a large number of charges are lost from the Au atoms of inner core,and the interface region between inner core and out shell is occupied by a higher bonding charge.That is to say,there exists the obvious electron transfer between the Au atom and neighbor S atom.The above indicates strong electrons interaction between inner core and outer shell region,which leads to the formation of Au-S bonds.
To obtain a better understanding for electronic structure properties at interface,the 2D charge density difference of Au13@(ZnS)42 nanocluster is shown in Fig.6 and chargetransfer data of the typical atom have also been marked out.It can be further confirmed that there are a lot of electrons accumulated at interface and lots of electrons transfer from Au atoms and ZnS shell.
Fig.5 Plot of charge density difference for Au13@(ZnS)42 core-shell nanocluster:a top view and b side view,where loss and enrichment of electrons are displayed in light blue and yellow,respectively,and isosurface value used is 20.24 e·nm-3
Fig.6 Plot of 2D charge density difference for Au13@(ZnO)42 with charge transfer data of typical atom marked out (unit:e)
As we all know,because the Fermi energy level of Au is higher than that of ZnS structure,the electrons transfer from valence band of Au cluster to ZnS conduction band will occur.Therefore,these new occupied states near the Fermi energy level supply a bridge for electrons excitation.And the electron excitation may lead to a significant redshift of the absorption spectrum,fthat is,a new optical absorption in the visible-light region.The redshift phenomenon is also found in other core-shell nanoclusters,theoretically and experimentally
3.2.2 Electronic structure properties of Au cluster
In order to understand the difference of electronic structure properties of Au cluster in shell with the isolated one,the total density of state (TDOS) and partial density of state(PDOS) of Au 13 isolated cluster and Au 13 inner core are displayed in Fig.7.As can be seen that,when putting Au13cluster in the ZnS outer shell,the integrity of DOS of Au13inner core becomes weak,which indicates that some electrons are lost and transfer from Au cluster to ZnS outer shell.The conclusion is consistent with the above discussion in electronic structure properties of Au13@(ZnS)42core-shell nanostructure.
In addition,it can also be seen that the DOS curves of Au13 inner core become smoother and some peaks disappear compared with isolated cluster,which is mainly due to strong electrons interaction between Au core and ZnS outer shell.Just as DOS of Au13@ZnS42 shown in Fig.4,when Au13 serving as inner core of ZnS outer shell,some peaks disappear compared to ZnS bulk.
Fig.7 Total and partial DOS of a Au13 isolated cluster and b Au13
3.3 Optical properties of Au13@(ZnS)42 and bulk ZnS structure
3.3.1 Absorption coefficient analysis
The optical properties of Au13@(ZnS)42 nanocluster can be systematically analyzed by means of absorption coefficient,which are presented in Fig.8,together with ZnS bulk structure for comparison.As can be seen,for Au13@(ZnS)42 core-shell composite,there is mainly one absorption peak located in the visible-light spectrum range of about 560 nm,which is similar to the experimental detection absorption peaks occurred at 530
Consequently,the visible-light absorption capability gets improved when Au cluster serving as the core of empty caged ZnS shell structure,and thus,the efficiency of photo-catalytic reaction is raised by extending the optical absorption spectra to the visible-light range.
3.3.2 Imaginary part and real part of dielectric.function analysis
In addition,the frequency-dependent dielectric function was also investigated and analyzed to identify the optical properties of Au13@(ZnS)42 composite cluster.For bulk ZnS wurtzite-type structure,the imaginary part,ε2(W),where w denotes the frequency,(or real part,ε1(w)) of the dielectric function includes two parts,the one part isε2(w)‖(orε1(w)‖),with the polarization vector parallel to the z direction,and the other one is s2(w)⊥(orε1(w)⊥)which is determined by the average of the spectra for polarizations perpendicular to z direction.Figure 9a and b presentsε2(w) andε1(w) of dielectric function of ZnS wurtzite structure,which is consistent with the other calculated work
Fig.8 Absorption coefficient of a ZnS bulk structure and b Au13@(ZnS)42 core-shell nanostructure as a function of wavelength
Figure 9c and d displays the imaginary part and real part of dielectric function of Au13@(ZnS)42 and ZnS bulk material,respectively.It is known from theε2(w) curve that the allε2(w) peaks of Au13@(ZnS)42 weaken compared with that ZnS bulk structure in the high energy region,but there is a strong peak located in the visible-light energy region of about 2.4 eV,indicating that the Au13@(ZnS)42nanocomposite absorbs lots of visible light.For theε1(w) curve,theε1(w) intensity of Au@(ZnS)42 is also weaker than that of ZnS bulk structure,and there is also an obvious peak in the lower energy region for Au13@(ZnS)42.It is worth to note that bulk ZnS structure exhibits dielectric property in low-energy range but behaves like a metal in the high energy range of about7-18 eV.However,theε1(w) value of the Au@ZnS coreshell nanostructure is almost all positive and dielectric in the whole energy range.Therefore,it can be concluded that the dielectric property of Au13@(ZnS)42 nanomaterial is better than that of ZnS bulk.
4 Conclusion
In summary,although the theoretical investigation of coreshell hetero-nanostructure is quite complicated in first principle calculation,a series of optimized structures for Aun@(ZnS)42 core-shell nanoparticles with different n values from 6 to 16 were built.The core-shell interaction energy and second-order difference of total energy indicate a most stable structure of Au13@(ZnS)42.Furthermore,the electronic structure properties of core-shell nanostructure were studied by means of the calculated DOS and charge density difference,and the results show that there are lots of electron transfers from Au atoms to ZnS shell.On the other hand,the optical properties of Au13@(ZnS)42 were also investigated based on the absorption coefficient and dielectric function;it is found that there exists a redshift of optical absorption to visible-light region from ZnS bulk to Au@ZnS core-shell structure,implying an enhancement of the photo-catalytic at visible-light region.And it is also found that the dielectric property of Au13@(ZnS)42 nanomaterial is better than that of ZnS bulk.
Fig.9 Dielectric functions of a imaginary part and b real part for ZnS wurtzite structure and c imaginary part and d real part for Au13@(ZnS)42nanostructure with ZnS bulk structure for comparison
参考文献