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The foremost constituents of human blood are plasma, water, hemoglobin, red blood cells (RBCs), and white blood cells. The discovery of these constituents is a very imperative source to identify numerous sicknesses such as anemia, hemophilia, and myeloma. Due to its supporting real‐time explorations, great sensitivity, and simple fabrication with low cost, photonic surface plasmon resonance device (PSPRD) has a massive chance for identifying blood constituents. Kreschmann configuration is based on the projected PSPRD, and the transfer matrix technique is exhausted to analyze the reflectance of PSPRD. The thicknesses of the PSPRD layers have been adjusted to reach the best efficiency. The different constituents of blood have been inspected with their performance parameters. The topmost sensitivity 298 deg RIU−1 is triumphed for RBCs. As a result, it is anticipated that the projected PSPRD is a good candidate for the recognition and revealing of other biomolecules in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, using first-principles calculations, we explored the sensing properties of formaldehyde (CH2O) on pristine antimonene (p-Sb), single vacancy modified antimonene (SV-Sb), and triple X-doped (X = B, N) SV-Sb (SV-3X-Sb). It is found that CH2O is physically adsorbed on p-Sb with adsorption energy Ea of -0.11 eV. The Ea slightly increased in SV-Sb (-0.17 eV). The maximum Ea was observed for SV-3B-Sb and SV-3N-Sb with Ea of -0.81 (-0.86) eV, respectively. Because of moderate adsorption strength, the electronic and magnetic properties of SV-Sb and SV-3X-Sb are slightly altered in the presence of CH2O. The SV-Sb with CH2O exhibits half-metallic character. The direct band gap (Eg) of SV-3B-Sb is slightly increased after adsorption, and in the presence of CH2O the semiconducting SV-3N-Sb showed a metallic character. These changes in electronic properties are attributed to charge transfer from absorbent to CH2O. These findings suggest that the sensitivity of antimonene for CH2O detection can be tuned with defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content: In this thesis, the role of N atom doping and biaxial strain in modulating the electronic structure and optical properties of antimonene has been deeply investigated using a first-principles approach based on density-functional theory. The results show that N doping significantly reduces the band gap of antimonene and introduces new electronic states, thus affecting its electronic structure. In terms of optical properties, N doping reduces the static permittivity of antimonene and alters its absorption, reflection, and energy loss properties. In addition, biaxial strain further enhanced the modulation effect of these properties. This study not only provides theoretical support for the application of antimonene in the field of high-performance two-dimensional electronic and optoelectronic devices, but also reveals strain and doping as an effective means to modulate the physical properties of two-dimensional materials. Methods: For the calculations, we used the DFT-based CASTEP software package for the simulation of the electronic structure. In order to more accurately characterize the weak interactions between two-dimensional materials, we specifically introduced the Van der Waals dispersion correction. We have chosen the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange-correlation generalization under the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and combined it with the Van der Waals correction term in order to fully consider the electronic structure of antimonene. For the calculation parameter settings, we set the truncation energy to 400 eV to ensure the accuracy of the calculation. Meanwhile, we adopt a 6 × 6 × 1 k-point grid for Brillouin zone sampling to obtain more accurate energy band structure and density of states information. For the convergence settings, the convergence criteria for both the system energy and the interaction force between atoms were set to 1 × 10−5 eV and 0.01 eV/Å, respectively. We selected a 3 × 3 × 1 supercell model with 18 Sb atoms. A vacuum thickness of 18 Å was established in the Z direction, which is sufficient to avoid interactions between the two atomic layers above and below the periodic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Heyd–Scuseria–Ernzerhof hybrid functional method, we present a systematic study on the electronic and magnetic properties of Fe-doped antimonene. One and two Fe substitutions in an 8 × 8 supercell of antimonene are examined, and the thermodynamic and kinetic stability of Fe dopants in antimonene is thoroughly addressed. Results show that with a single Fe dopant in antimonene, the spins on the dopant are parallel to the induced spins on the surrounding Sb atoms via the hybridization between Sb 5p and Fe 3d orbitals, giving rise to ferromagnetism. Two Fe dopants in antimonene tend to stay at the substitutional sites next nearest to each other via the strong attraction, leading to the formation of the Fe-Sb-Fe cluster. With such a cluster, apart from the p-d hybridization between Fe and the surrounding Sb atoms (like the case of a single Fe dopant), two Fe atoms are found to couple ferromagnetically to each other via the mediation of the common nearest Sb atom. The ferromagnetic mechanisms between two Fe dopants are discussed and analyzed. This work offers useful theoretical guidance for promoting the applications of antimonene to spintronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimonene has attracted much attention due to its excellent characteristics of high carrier mobility, thermoelectric properties and high stability. It has great application prospects in Q-switched lasers, laser protection and spintronics. At present, the epitaxy growth of antimonene mainly depends on molecular beam epitaxy. We have successfully prepared antimonene films on silicon, germanium/silicon substrates for the first time using electron beam evaporation coating and studied the effects of the deposition rate and substrate on the preparation of antimonene; film characterization was performed via confocal microprobe Raman spectroscopy, via X-ray diffraction and using a scanning electron microscope. Raman spectroscopy showed that different deposition rates can lead to the formation of different structures of antimonene, such as α phase and β phase. At the same time, it was found that the growth of antimonene is also affected by different substrates and ion beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this simulation work, comparative study of surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based sensor designed with gold (Au), aluminium (Al), and silver (Ag) is numerically investigated to improve the performance parameter of device using Ni-antimonene layer in the visible range of light at wavelength of 633 nm. In this device configuration, different metals (Ag/Au/Al), a diamagnetic material ferric oxide (Fe2O3), nickel (Ni) and 2D material antimonene (Sb) are used with CaF2 glass prism using Kretschmann configuration with angle interrogation method. The angle interrogation method is used to examine the performance of the device. The performance parameters of SPR sensor such as sensitivity, detection accuracy (DA), and quality factor (QF) have been calculated. The present study provides a comparative study of plasmonic metal Ag, Au and Al. The multilayer configuration of SPR sensor consists Ag, Fe2O3, Ni, and antimonene which provides maximum sensitivity 3100/RIU. The sensitivities of Au and Al metals are 660RIU−1 and 2040RIU−1, respectively, which is less in comparison with Ag metal. The different performance parameters of SPR sensor have been calculated for comparative study of Ag, Au and Al metals. The penetration depth (PD) 110.5 nm and 3D plot of transverse electric (TM) field intensity have also been plotted. The proposed SPR sensor using Ag metal with highest sensitivity value has capability to detect the different liquid analytes in the field of biosensing application with large uses in biomedical field in visible range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel and efficient photocatalyst g-C3N4/Sb was constructed by impregnating graphitic carbon nitride with 2D antimonene in this study. XRD, SEM, FT-IR and XPS results all confirmed the successful construction of g-C3N4/Sb heterojunction. Inhibited recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs and enhanced photocatalytic activity are observed for the composited sample. Under light irradiation, the composite shows a three-fold increased degradation rate for methylene blue. The reaction efficiency retains about 92.4% after three test cycles, suggesting great stability of the catalyst. Meanwhile, photoelectrochemical test results show that the overpotential for oxygen evolution reaction is lowered to 322 mV and the photocurrent response is elevated by six times for g-C3N4/Sb compared to pristine g-C3N4. It is concluded that the junction between 2D antimonene and g-C3N4 provides a channel for the high-speed transfer of photogenerated carriers, which helps to improve photocatalytic performance. This work provides a new way to construct the two-dimensional heterojunction based on g-C3N4 for improved catalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimony emerges as one of the interesting monoelemental graphene analogs, having unique properties and a wide range of applications. Among the solution-processing routes, liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE) offers various advantages. However, the choice of solvent greatly influences the exfoliation efficiency. Here, detailed work has been carried out on the LPE of antimony and its dispersion stability. By employing the Hansen solubility sphere method, the Hansen solubility parameters of antimony are determined to be 22.53, 14.03, and 18.31 MPa1/2, corresponding to the dispersion interactions, polar interactions, and hydrogen bonding interactions, respectively. To further understand the solute–solvent interactions, the stability of the dispersions is investigated both qualitatively and quantitatively using an accelerated centrifuge-based technique employing space-time-resolved extinction profiles (STEP). The sedimentation kinetics of the dispersions are studied using various metrics like instability index, integral extinction, and cumulative sedimentation velocity distribution. Among the solvents studied, isopropyl alcohol, ε-caprolactone, N-methyl pyrrolidone, dimethyl sulfoxide, and ethanol are found to have better dispersion stability. Interestingly, some of the solvents with high dispersion concentrations appear to be relatively less stable. Combining Hansen solubility parameters with stability analysis helped in identifying the efficient solvents for obtaining the stable antimonene dispersions. Furthermore, antimonene nanosheets embedded in the carbon nanotubes matrix are used as anode materials for lithium-ion battery applications. The excellent cyclic stability exhibited by antimonene indicates it to be a promising candidate for next-generation energy storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimony shows promise as a 2D mono‐elemental crystal, referred to as antimonene. When exposed to ambient conditions, antimonene layers react with oxygen, forming new crystal structures, leading to significant changes in electronic properties. These changes are influenced by the degree of oxidation. Utilizing density‐functional theory calculations, stable configurations of bilayer antimony oxide and their corresponding electronic properties are studied. Additionally, different stacking arrangements and their effects on the physical properties of the materials are investigated. Furthermore, the analysis encompasses strain‐free heterobilayers containing both pristine and oxidized antimonene layers, aiming to understand the interplay between these materials and their collective impact on the bilayer properties. In the results, insight is provided into how the properties of antimony‐based bilayer structures can be modified by adjusting stoichiometry and stacking configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Van der Waals (vdW) layered materials exhibit fruitful novel physical properties. The energy band of such materials depends strongly on their structures, and a tremendous variation in their physical properties can be deduced from a tiny change in inter‐layer spacing, twist angle, or in‐plane strain. In this work, a kind of vdW layered material of spiral antimonene is constructed, and the strain effects in the material are studied. The spiral antimonene is grown on a germanium (Ge) substrate and is induced by a helical dislocation penetrating through few atomic‐layers of antimonene (β‐phase). The as‐grown spiral is intrinsically strained, and the lattice distortion is found to be pinned around the dislocation. Both spontaneous inter‐layer twist and in‐plane anisotropic strain are observed in scanning tunneling microscope (STM) measurements. The strain in the spiral antimonene can be significantly modified by STM tip interaction, leading to a variation in the surface electronic density of states (DOS) and a large modification in the work function of up to a few hundreds of millielectron‐volts (meV). Those strain effects are expected to have potential applications in building up novel piezoelectric devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the widely studied semiconductor materials, titanium dioxide (TiO2) exhibits high photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting performance as well as high chemical and photo stability. However, limited by a wide band gap and fast electron-hole recombination rate, the low solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency remains a bottleneck for the practical application of TiO2-based photoelectrodes. To improve the charge separation and water oxidation efficiency of TiO2 photoanodes, antimonene, a two-dimensional (2D) material obtained by liquid-phase exfoliation, was assembled onto TiO2 nanorod arrays (TNRAs) by a simple drop-coating assembly process. PEC measurements showed that the resulting 2D Sb/TiO2 photoelectrode displayed an enhanced photocurrent density of about 1.32 mA cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH at 0.3 V vs. Hg/HgO, which is ~1.65 times higher than that of the pristine TNRAs. Through UV-Vis absorption and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements, it was possible to ascribe the enhanced PEC performances of the 2D Sb/TiO2 photoanode to increased absorption intensity in the visible light region, and improved interfacial charge-transfer kinetics in the 2D Sb/TiO2 heterojunction, which promotes electron-hole separation, transfer, and collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-dimensional (2D) Sb-modified screen-printed carbon nanofibers electrode (2D Sbexf-SPCNFE) was developed to improve the stripping voltammetric determination of Cd(II) and Pb(II), taking advantage of the synergistic effect between the two nanomaterials. The surface morphology of the 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The analytical performance of 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE was compared to those presented by screen-printed carbon electrodes modified with 2D Sbexf (2D Sbexf-SPCE) and the corresponding bare electrodes: screen-printed carbon nanofibers electrode (SPCNFEbare) and screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCEbare). After optimizing the experimental conditions, the 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE exhibited much better analytical parameters compared to the other assessed sensors. Analysis in 0.01 mol L−1 HCl (pH = 2) using 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE showed excellent linear behavior in the concentration range of 2.9 to 85.0 µg L−1 and 0.3 to 82.0 µg L−1 for Cd(II) and Pb(II), respectively. The limits of detection after 240 s deposition time for Cd(II) and Pb(II) were 0.9 and 0.1 µg L−1, and sensitivities between 1.5 and 3 times higher than those displayed by SPCEbare, SPCNFEbare, and 2D Sbexf-SPCE were obtained. Finally, the 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE was successfully applied to the determination of Cd(II) and Pb(II) traces in a certified estuarine water sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Van der Waals (vdW) layered materials exhibit fruitful novel physical properties. The energy band of such materials depends strongly on their structures, and a tremendous variation in their physical properties can be deduced from a tiny change in inter‐layer spacing, twist angle, or in‐plane strain. In this work, a kind of vdW layered material of spiral antimonene is constructed, and the strain effects in the material are studied. The spiral antimonene is grown on a germanium (Ge) substrate and is induced by a helical dislocation penetrating through few atomic‐layers of antimonene (β‐phase). The as‐grown spiral is intrinsically strained, and the lattice distortion is found to be pinned around the dislocation. Both spontaneous inter‐layer twist and in‐plane anisotropic strain are observed in scanning tunneling microscope (STM) measurements. The strain in the spiral antimonene can be significantly modified by STM tip interaction, leading to a variation in the surface electronic density of states (DOS) and a large modification in the work function of up to a few hundreds of millielectron‐volts (meV). Those strain effects are expected to have potential applications in building up novel piezoelectric devices.

Antimonene has attracted much attention due to its excellent properties such as high carrier mobility, excellent thermoelectric performance and high stability. In order to verify its theoretical advantages, a large number of experimental studies have been carried out and its applications explored. This paper mainly introduces the experimental preparation of antimonene by mechanical exfoliation, liquid phase exfoliation and epitaxial growth, summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and describes the applications of antimonene in sensor, battery, medicine and laser. Finally, prospects have been made to the future applications of antimonene in photoelectric field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overexpression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in tumor cells can activate inherent defense mechanisms during hyperthermia-based treatments, inducing thermoresistance and thus diminishing the treatment efficacy. Here, we report a distinct “non-inhibitor involvement” strategy to address this issue through engineering a calcium-based nanocatalyst (G/A@CaCO3-PEG). The constructed nanocatalyst consists of calcium carbonate (CaCO3)-supported glucose oxidase (GOD) and 2D antimonene quantum dots (AQDs), with further surface modification by lipid bilayers and polyethylene glycol (PEG). The engineered G/A@CaCO3-PEG nanocatalyst features prolonged blood circulation, which is stable at neutral pH but rapidly degrades under mildly acidic tumor microenvironment, resulting in rapid release of drug cargo in the tumor microenvironment. The integrated GOD effectively catalyzes the depletion of glucose for reducing the supplies of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and subsequent down-regulation of HSP expression. This effect then augments the therapeutic efficacy of photothermal hyperthermia induced by 2D AQDs upon irradiation with near-infrared light as assisted by reversing the cancer cells’ thermoresistance. Consequently, synergistic antineoplastic effects can be achieved via low-temperature photothermal therapy. Systematic in vitro and in vivo evaluations have demonstrated that G/A@CaCO3-PEG nanocatalysts feature potent antitumor activity with a high tumor-inhibition rate (83.92%). This work thus paves an effective way for augmenting the hyperthermia-based tumor treatments via restriction of the ATP supply.

• High quality of antimonene thin films. • Stretched lattice in-plane. Two-dimensional antimonene with a honeycomb structure has attracted significant attention in recent years due to its novel properties and tunable electronic structure as varying applied in-plane strain. Yet, applying epitaxially strained antimonene is greatly limited by the strong coupling with the metal substrates. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of the van der Waals stretched antimonene on graphene/Cu(111) substrate via remote epitaxy. It is found that, as corroborated by atomic force microscopy and reflection high-energy electron diffraction, the lattice of the antimonene can be remotely stretched by the underlying Cu(111). The graphene layer prevents antimonene from forming the surface alloy with Cu(111), which is also confirmed by Raman spectroscopy results. Our study not only provides a way to regulate the lattice of the epitaxial layers remotely but also provides a new idea for developing new potential topological materials. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of flexible multifunctional composites is an important topic in the fields of materials engineering, electronics, aerospace and biomedicine. However, there are still major challenges to achieve a variety of functions to meet the requirement for the application. Herein, a flexible multifunctional porous composite is successfully prepared by fabricating both modified graphene and antimonene into a melamine sponge. Compared with the graphene composite sponge, the addition of antimonene improved its electrochemical and sensing performances. The specific capacitance of antimonene/graphene composite sponge was significantly increased, while the capacitance retention rate was 83% under 20,000 charge–discharge cycles. The pressure sensitivity of the prepared flexible multifunctional device assembled was 44% higher than that of the graphene composite sponge. A power supply-integrated sensing system was assembled for monitoring human motion signals. The experimental results show that this system is a promising monitoring device with broad potentials in the fields of biosensing.

Electrochemically tailored 2D antimonene nanosheets exhibit large Na+/K+ storage capacity, good cycle stability, and excellent rate performance. [Display omitted] • Multidimensional Sb nanomaterials are fabricated via electrochemical method. • 0D, 2D, and 3D Sb nanomaterials are tailored by tuning the electrolytes. • The as-obtained 2D antimonene provides superior Na/K storage performances. Downsizing the dimensions of materials holds great importance for promoting the alkali-ion storage properties, which is considered to be one of the most efficient methods for improving the cycling stability and rate capability of alloy anodes. Nevertheless, efficient, affordable, and scalable methods to prepare low-dimensional electrode materials are lacking. In this study, we developed a tunable electrochemical strategy for synthesizing multidimensional antimony (Sb) nanomaterials. Depending on different reaction mechanisms in different electrolytes, we fabricated zero-dimensional Sb nanoparticles, two-dimensional (2D) antimonene nanosheets, and a three-dimensional porous Sb network through the electrochemical delamination of bulk Sb in lithium hexafluorophosphate in propylene carbonate, tetraethylammonium hydroxide aqueous solution, and tetraethylammonium hexafluorophosphate in N, N-dimethylformamide, respectively. In the preferred electrolyte, 2D antimonene nanosheets deliver a large sodium storage capacity of 572.5 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at 0.2 A g−1 and an excellent rate capability of 553.6 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1. When used as anode materials for potassium-ion batteries, we obtained a high capacity of 550.3 mAh g−1 after 300 cycles, and observed a high rate capability of 302.3 mAh g−1 at 4 A g−1. These results provide an easy and tunable strategy for designing high-performance low-dimensional materials for next-generation batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, antimonene nanosheets (ANs) were prepared by electrochemical lithiation intercalation and ultrasonication process for the first time, which were introduced onto the top of perovskite precursor film as heterogeneous nucleation sites. ANs can adsorb FAI/MAI to epitaxially grow perovskite film along their (012) planes. The perovskite solar cells with ANs assisted growth show high stability and an impressive efficiency of 24.54%. [Display omitted] There are many grain boundaries and defects in polycrystalline perovskite films, resulting in sacrificed efficiency and instability for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). By regulating the growth of perovskite grains along the vertical direction through epitaxial growth, one may expect fewer grain-boundaries, effective charge transport, improved crystalline quality, and reduced defect density. However, there is still no suitable epitaxial growth substrate for perovskite. Here, we developed an electrochemical lithiation intercalation and ultrasonication method to prepare high-quality antimonene nanosheets (ANs). It is found that the perovskite film grows preferentially along the (012) planes of the ANs that have perfect lattice match with the (001) planes of the perovskite, leading to a high-quality perovskite film with a preferential orientation along the [001] direction and greatly enlarged grain size. Consequently, the oriented perovskite-based PSC achieves a remarkable PCE of 24.54% and shows an enhanced stability under ambient conditions, thermal annealing or light illumination. This work opens an effective avenue to effectively control the oriented growth of perovskite film for high-performance perovskite optoelectrical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimonene is one of the more exciting members of the post-graphene family with promising applications in optoelectronics, energy storage and conversion, catalysis, sensing or biomedicine. Efforts have been focused on developing a large-scale production route, and indeed, through a colloidal approach, high-quality few-layers antimonene (FLA) hexagons have been recently obtained. However, their oxidation behavior remains unexplored, as well as their interface, inner structure, and photothermal properties. Herein, it is revealed that the hexagons have an intrinsic surface functionalization with alkyl thiols that protects the core of the hexagonal flake against oxidation, and displayed inner defects related to the crystal formation during synthesis, as confirmed by cross-sectional scanning transmission electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDX) and temperature-dependent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) analysis. A comprehensive study of temperature and laser power-dependent Raman spectroscopy on varying FLA hexagon thicknesses is carried out. Thinner flakes (<20 nm) exhibited a blueshift and intensity decrease, contrasting with thicker ones resembling typical exfoliated flakes with a redshift. This work addresses a literature gap, providing insights into hexagonal FLA structure and characterization, and highlighting the influence of surface functional groups on oxidation behavior. Additionally, it emphasizes the potential of antimonene hexagons as building blocks for 2D heterostructures, including combinations with antimonene oxides and other 2D materials., (© 2024 The Author(s). Small published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

BackgroundThe extraction of uranium (U) and its alternative resources, such as thorium (Th) and plutonium (Pu), from seawater is essential to address the scarcity of terrestrial U resources. The development of a separation material with high adsorption properties is the key to solving this problem.PurposeThis study aims to reveal the adsorption behavior of actinides (U, Th, and Pu) on the surface of a two-dimensional metal material, antimonene.MethodsThe Hubbard U values, Ueff, were determined for the on-site Coulomb interactions of 5f electrons of U and Pu atoms using the linear response method. Furthermore, the adsorption energy, adsorption configuration, electronic structures, charge transfer, and highest occupied molecular orbital wavefunction of a U, Th, or Pu atom adsorbed on the surface of monolayer antimonene were analyzed using the DFT+U approximation. The variation of the adsorption rate with temperature was further calculated by the equilibrium adsorption rate equation.ResultsThe calculated Ueff values of U and Pu atoms are 2.24 eV and 2.84 eV, respectively. The Pu atom is energetically unfavorable to be adsorbed on antimonene (with a negative adsorption energy for each adsorption site), whereas the U and Th atoms exhibit strong chemical adsorption on its surface. Antimonene also offers abundant surficial stable adsorption sites for the U and Th adatoms. The most energetically stable sites for the U and Th adatoms are the B (Bridge)-H (Hollow) site and H (Hollow) site, with adsorption energies of 4.40 eV and 3.62 eV, respectively. The impurity states are generated in the band gap of antimonene upon the adsorption of the U or Th atom, and the strong p-d coupling between the U or Th adatom and antimonene in the impurity states contributes to the strong adsorption of the adatoms. The desorption temperatures of U and Th on the surface of antimonene reach 837 K and 660 K, respectively.ConclusionsThe results indicate that antimonene is an excellent two-dimensional adsorbent material for U and Th and has potential for several applications such as in the extraction of actinides from seawater.

We review the photosignal formation mechanisms, architecture, and main parameters of photosensors based on group-III, IV, V, and VI monoatomic 2D materials, specifically, graphene and graphene-like materials, silicene, germanene, black phosphorus, black phosphorus‒arsenic solid solutions, antimonene, bismuthene, tellurene, borophene, and heterostructures containing 2D materials, including those combined with other low-dimensional materials, as well as photosensors with plasmonic nanoantennas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of volatile organic compounds, such as ethyl acetate, and butyl acetate emitted from industries is essential to ensure safety. The two-dimensional (2D) material δ-antimonene nanosheet (δ-SbNS) is used as a base substrate for the detection of ethyl acetate, and butyl acetate vapours. Based on the first-principles investigation, the structural stability and electronic properties of δ-SbNS are determined. The adsorption energy indicates that ethyl acetate and butyl acetate molecules are physisorbed on δ-SbNS. Furthermore, the electron difference density and charge transfer studies reveal the acceptor nature of δ-SbNS. Also, the projected density of states (PDOS) and energy band structure studies upon adsorption of ethyl acetate, and butyl acetate on δ-SbNS are reported. The δ-SbNS behaves as a chemi-resistor owing to adsorption and desorption of ethyl acetate, and butyl acetate vapours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, two-dimensional materials are one of the key research topics for scientists around the world. Interest in 2D materials is not surprising because, thanks to their remarkable mechanical, thermal, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties, they promise to revolutionize electronics. The unique properties of graphene-like 2D materials give them the potential to create completely new types of devices for functional electronics, nanophotonics, and quantum technologies. This paper considers epitaxially grown two-dimensional allotropic modifications of single elements: graphene (C) and its analogs (transgraphenes) borophene (B), aluminene (Al), gallenene (Ga), indiene (In), thallene (Tl), silicene (Si), germanene (Ge), stanene (Sn), plumbene (Pb), phosphorene (P), arsenene (As), antimonene (Sb), bismuthene (Bi), selenene (Se), and tellurene (Te). The emphasis is put on their structural parameters and technological modes in the method of molecular beam epitaxy, which ensure the production of high-quality defect-free single-element two-dimensional structures of a large area for promising device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two‐dimensional (2D) antimonene (Sb) is regarded as a promising anode candidate for lithium‐ion batteries owing to its theoretical capacity (660 mAh g−1). Preparing hexagonal Sb nanosheets (H‐SbNs) has been addressed an effective strategy to resolve the drastic volume expansion and the pulverization issues. Here, we present a facile method to prepare the few‐layer H‐SbNs on the surface of carbon fibers via the electrospinning with a thermal annealing process. When evaluated as an anode for lithium storage, the H‐SbN electrode delivers a high rate performance and excellent cycling stability. Electrochemical analysis reveals that the H‐SbN electrode displays the mainly diffusion‐controlled capacitive contributions and excellent lithium‐ion and electron transport. Our findings demonstrate that 2D materials are superior to use as the Sb‐based anodes for electrochemical lithium storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-dimensional (2D) Sb-modified screen-printed carbon nanofibers electrode (2D Sbexf-SPCNFE) was developed to improve the stripping voltammetric determination of Cd(II) and Pb(II), taking advantage of the synergistic effect between the two nanomaterials. The surface morphology of the 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The analytical performance of 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE was compared to those presented by screen-printed carbon electrodes modified with 2D Sbexf (2D Sbexf-SPCE) and the corresponding bare electrodes: screen-printed carbon nanofibers electrode (SPCNFEbare) and screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCEbare). After optimizing the experimental conditions, the 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE exhibited much better analytical parameters compared to the other assessed sensors. Analysis in 0.01 mol L−1 HCl (pH = 2) using 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE showed excellent linear behavior in the concentration range of 2.9 to 85.0 µg L−1 and 0.3 to 82.0 µg L−1 for Cd(II) and Pb(II), respectively. The limits of detection after 240 s deposition time for Cd(II) and Pb(II) were 0.9 and 0.1 µg L−1, and sensitivities between 1.5 and 3 times higher than those displayed by SPCEbare, SPCNFEbare, and 2D Sbexf-SPCE were obtained. Finally, the 2D Sbexf-SPCNFE was successfully applied to the determination of Cd(II) and Pb(II) traces in a certified estuarine water sample.

As one of the widely studied semiconductor materials, titanium dioxide (TiO2) exhibits high photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting performance as well as high chemical and photo stability. However, limited by a wide band gap and fast electron-hole recombination rate, the low solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency remains a bottleneck for the practical application of TiO2-based photoelectrodes. To improve the charge separation and water oxidation efficiency of TiO2 photoanodes, antimonene, a two-dimensional (2D) material obtained by liquid-phase exfoliation, was assembled onto TiO2 nanorod arrays (TNRAs) by a simple drop-coating assembly process. PEC measurements showed that the resulting 2D Sb/TiO2 photoelectrode displayed an enhanced photocurrent density of about 1.32 mA cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH at 0.3 V vs. Hg/HgO, which is ~1.65 times higher than that of the pristine TNRAs. Through UV-Vis absorption and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements, it was possible to ascribe the enhanced PEC performances of the 2D Sb/TiO2 photoanode to increased absorption intensity in the visible light region, and improved interfacial charge-transfer kinetics in the 2D Sb/TiO2 heterojunction, which promotes electron-hole separation, transfer, and collection.

Antimonene (Sb) is a novel kind of two-dimensional (2D) material that is predicted to be promising for various applications, such as water splitting and semiconductor devices. Several methods have been reported to prepare Sb nanoflakes/nanofilms; however, it is still relatively difficult to prepare Sb nanofilms. In this work, a method of low-power magnetron sputtering deposition was used for the preparation of Sb nanofilms with lateral dimensions on the centimeter scale and controllable film thickness. It was found that the control of the deposition temperature is important for the final crystalline structure of the nanofilms. Furthermore, the application of the nanofilms as a catalyst for water splitting (hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER)) was demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional silicon-based transistor downscaling is approaching its physical limits, and thus additional novel solutions are urgently desired to address this issue. Herein, we show that 2-D antimonene with heavy effective mass and high density of state (DOS) via strain engineering presents reliable transistor performance with the channel length (${L}_{\text {ch}}$) shrinking below 5 nm. As the biaxial tensile strain increases to 7%, the band switching gives rise to a heavy hole effective mass of $12.6{m}_{{0}}$ and a Van Hoff singularity-like DOS. This unique electronic structure can effectively suppress the tunneling current, resulting in steep subthreshold swings (SSs) and ideal ON-current (${I}_{ \mathrm{ON}}$). Especially, as ${L}_{\text {ch}}$ downscales to 2.2 nm, the OFF-current can be easily reduced to 0.1 $\mu \text{A}/\mu \text{m}$ with SS of 120 mV/dec (310 mV/dec for pristine antimonene) and ${I}_{ \mathrm{ON}}$ exceeds 900 $\mu \text{A}/\mu \text{m}$ , fulfilling the requirements for high-performance applications. Our results provide new insights on extending the scaling limit in energy-efficient gate-controlled devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based single-side polished photonic crystal fiber (SSP-PCF) sensor for low as well as high refractive index (RI) sensing. To achieve this, an active metal gold (Au) is deposited on the PCF's flat narrow channels to form a dual-sensing channel. Following that, a thin nanolayer antimonene is deposited on Au, as its buckled honeycomb lattice structure aids in the trapping of numerous biomolecules. For the sensing range of 1.27 to 1.39, numerical results show that the wavelength sensitivity (WS) and amplitude sensitivity (AS) mounted on 77,000 nmRIU−1 and 1320.41 RIU−1, respectively, with wavelength resolution (RW), and amplitude resolution (RA), as high as 1.298 × 10–6 RIU, and 8.6 × 10–7 RIU. The promising results obtained from the proposed SSP-PCF sensor offers improved refractive index sensing with a fine figure of merit (FOM), i.e., 311.74 RIU−1 for the sensing range of 1.27 to 1.39, which covers most known analytes such as proteins, cancer cells, glucose, viruses, DNA/RNA, medicinal drugs, halogenated organic acids. Further, the proposed sensor's design requires a simple fabrication procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimonene (Sb) has been widely studied owing to its high carrier mobility, high thermal conductivity, and tunable electronic properties. Conventional synthetic methods for antimonene nanosheets (Sb-NSs) are more complex and multi-step reactions, mainly including the epitaxial growth method, mechanical peeling method, electrochemical separation method, and liquid-phase separation method. Here, we report a simple method for the synthesis of Sb-NSs on Ni foam from two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets to one-dimensional (1D) nanowires via hydrothermal method. The fabricated hexagonal Sb-NSs exhibit a transverse scale of 400 nm and a thickness of approximately 50 nm. When evaluated as anode materials for lithium storage, hexagonal Sb-NSs deliver a high reversible capacity of 870.3 mAh g ^−1 at 0.2 A g ^−1 and a reversible capacity of 375 mAh g ^−1 at 0.2 A g ^−1 after 60 cycles. As a result, the successful preparation of dimensional-switching Sb-NMs provides a new class of 2D materials for LIBs.

Antimonene, a novel two-dimension (2D) Group-VA material, shows excellent electrical and optical properties. In this work, antimonene nanosheets or nanoparticles were obtained by laser irradiating antimony powder in isopropanol solution and different morphology of antimonene were obtained by adjusting different laser irradiation parameters, including irradiation time and irradiation energy. The nonlinear absorption properties of antimonene with different morphologies under 532 nm nanosecond laser were studied by Z-scan technology. It was found that the reverse-saturation absorption ability was the strongest when the morphology of the sample was nanosheets, which was very suitable for optical limiting. In addition, due to the limitation of the application of the sample in the form of solution, we added it into organosilicon, and obtained the solid antimonene-organosilicon composite with optical limiting function. The results showed that antimonene nanosheets with best optical limiting ability can be prepared by adjusting the laser irradiation parameters, and the products are successfully added into solid matrix to enhance its practicability in protecting people's eyes and optical equipment from damage caused by high power laser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most anticancer drugs with broad toxicities are systematically administrated to cancer patients and their distribution in tumors is extremely low owing to hypoxia, which compromises the therapeutic efficacies of these cancer drugs. Consequently, a preponderant proportion of cancer drugs is distributed in off-target-healthy tissues, which often causes severe adverse effects. Precision cancer therapy without overdosing patients with drugs remains one of the most challenging issues in cancer therapy. Here, a novel concept of nanopoxia is presented, which is a tumor-hypoxia-based photodynamic nanoplatform for the release of therapeutic agents to achieve precision cancer therapy. Under tumor hypoxia, exposure of tumors to laser irradiation induces the fracture of polymer outer shell and produces anticancer reactive oxygen species, and switches 2D antimonene (Sb) nanomaterials to cytotoxic trivalent antimony to synergistically kill tumors. In preclinical cancer models, delivery of Sb nanomaterials to mice virtually ablates tumor growth without producing any detectable adverse effects. Mechanistically, the tumor hypoxiatriggered generation of trivalent antimony displays direct damaging effects on cancer cells and suppression of tumor angiogenesis. Together, the study provides a proof-of-concept of hypoxia-based precision cancer therapy by developing a novel nanoplatform that offers multifarious mechanisms of cancer eradication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimonene has attracted much attention due to its excellent properties such as high carrier mobility, excellent thermoelectric performance and high stability. In order to verify its theoretical advantages, a large number of experimental studies have been carried out and its applications explored. This paper mainly introduces the experimental preparation of antimonene by mechanical exfoliation, liquid phase exfoliation and epitaxial growth, summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and describes the applications of antimonene in sensor, battery, medicine and laser. Finally, prospects have been made to the future applications of antimonene in photoelectric field.

Density functional theory calculations have been performed to study the adsorption behavior of ionic liquids (ILs) on 15th group nanosheets including phosphorene (BP), arsenene (As), and antimonene (Sb). Three ILs based on 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium ([EMIM]+), tetramethylammonium ([TMA]+), and N‐methylpyridinium ([MPI]+) cations paired with tetrafluoroborate ([BF4]−) anion were selected as adsorbates on different 2D nanosheets to explore the interfacial behavior. The calculated structural, energy, charge transfer, and electronic properties of the adsorption systems for ILs/nanosheets exhibit combination by non‐covalent interaction. Adsorption of ILs induces a very small reduction of band gap for BP, As, and Sb nanosheets, and the electronic properties of nanosheets are nearly unchanged. These results increase understanding of the experimental mechanism for IL dispersion 2D materials and suggest that ILs can be used to functionalize elemental 15th group nanosheets for further applications in various fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2D materials show outstanding properties that can bring many applications in different technological fields. However, their uses are still limited by production methods. In this context, antimonene is recently suggested as a new 2D material to fabricate different (opto)electronic devices, among other potential applications. This work focuses on optimizing the synthetic parameters to produce high‐quality antimonene hexagons and their implementation in a large‐scale manufacturing procedure. By means of a continuous‐flow synthesis, few‐layer antimonene hexagons with ultra‐large lateral dimensions (up to several microns) and a few nanometers thick are isolated. The suitable chemical post‐treatment of these nanolayers with chloroform gives rise to antimonene surfaces showing low oxidation that can be easily contacted with microelectrodes. Therefore, the reported procedure offers a way to solve two critical problems for using antimonene in many applications: large‐scale preparation of high‐quality antimonene and the ability to set electrical contacts useful for device fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel of differential Mueller matrix is developed for extracting linear birefringence and circular dichroism of miRNA sample. • A self-build antimonene-based surface plasmon resonance prism coupler sensor for enhance the sensitivity and resolution of the measurement. • A thin antibody S9.6 is employed for signal amplification. • The finest resolution of the miRNA detection is 21.29 fM over the concentration range of 0–1000 fM. This study investigates the efficacy of surface plasmon resonance sensors incorporating antimonene for the enhanced detection of microRNA (miRNA). The differential Mueller matrix method is employed to extract linear birefringence (LB, α) and circular dichroism (CD, R) of the miRNA sample from the measurements obtained using a surface plasmon resonance prism coupler and a self-built Stokes polarimetry system. The intensity of the detection signal received from the SPR coupler is amplified through the application of a thin antibody S9.6 layer deposited on the sensor surface. The values of α and R of two miRNA sequences, namely hsa-miR-21-5p and hsa-miR-125-5p over the concentration range of 0–1000 fM. The surface plasmon resonance sensor shows a resolution of 21.29 fM for miR-21-5p detection and 27.65 fM for miR-125-5p detection. In general, the proposed antimonene-based SPR sensor provides a useful tool for miRNA detection at the femtomole level and thus contributes to the advancement of cancer diagnostic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decomposition Mueller matrix method is proposed for detection of miRNA and enhanced by using a surface plasmon resonance (SPR). In the proposed approach, a Mueller matrix decomposition method is employed to extract the linear birefringence (LB) and circular dichroism (CD) properties of the miRNA sample. The accuracy of the LB and CD measurements is enhanced through the use of a high-resolution antimonene-based SPR prism coupler with DNA-linked gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by measuring the LB orientation angle (α) and CD property (R) of two miRNA aqueous solutions (hsa-miR-125-5p and hsa-miR-21-5p) over the concentration range of 0∼1000 fM in both cases. The results show that, for both samples, α and R vary linearly with the change in the miRNA concentration. Furthermore, the values of α and R obtained for the two samples are quantifiably different, and hence the selectivity of the proposed SPR sensor is confirmed. Overall, the results highlight the potential of the proposed sensor as a valuable tool for miRNA detection with prospective applications in cancer diagnosis. [Display omitted] • A novel of decomposition Mueller matrixis developed for miRNA detection • A self-build antimonene-based surface plasmon resonance prism coupler sensor for enhance the sensitivity and resolution of the measurement. • A DNA-linked gold nanoparticles is developed for signal amplification. • The finest resolution of the miRNA detection is 69.41 fM over the concentration range of 0∼1000 fM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous antimony has attracted wide attention in the area of energy storage as it can accommodate large volume change and facilitate Na+ ions diffusion. Herein, stable porous antimonene sheets with mesopores ranging from 2 to 50 nm have successfully fabricated through electrochemical exfoliation of layered bulk antimony rod in tetramethylammonium hydroxide aqueous solution with the aid of large TMA+ cations insertion and strong alkaline electrolyte environment. When utilized as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, the as-exfoliated porous antimonene can deliver a high specific capacity of 569.1 mAh g−1 upon 200 cycles at 100 mA g−1, and it can still keep a high capacity of 277.8 mAh g−1 even at fast charge/discharge rate of 5000 mA g−1.

In this paper, we explore a highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) structure. The configuration fabricated by the antimonene-Fe2O3-copper (Cu) is theoretically analyzed. Fe2O3 work as dielectric nanosheets to enhance the sensitivity. Besides, the x components of the electric field also can be improved. As promising two-dimensional (2D) material with a stronger interaction with biomolecules and higher chemical stability, antimonene exhibits potential applications in sensing. By optimizing the configuration parameters, the highest angular sensitivity of 398°/RIU. The result displays that the sensitivity is enhanced by 79.3% compared with the conventional configuration with a single Cu film. We hope that the simple configuration will find the suitable application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The zero band gap of graphene and low carrier mobility of molybdenum disulfide hinder their applications in electronic device. The successful preparation of single-layer black phosphorous and the direct band gap, higher carrier mobility and negative poisson’ s ratio of phosphene make up for the shortcomings of graphene and molybdenum disulfide, which has triggered great research interests on the low-dimensional group-VA nanomaterials. It enables the rapid development of low-dimensional group-VA nanomaterials in the fields of materials science and optoelectronics. Recent research results on the low-dimensional group-VA nanomaterials are summarized in this paper. Combining theoretical calculations and experimental synthesis, relationship between the structure and performance of the materials is analyzed. Finally, the preparation methods and applications of the above materials are summarized. The low-dimensional group-VA nanomaterials exhibit a variety of crystal structures, high dynamic stability, versatile electronic structures and higher carrier mobility and other characteristics. Such properties make low-dimensional group-VA nanomaterials have a wide range of applications in lowdimensional optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a surface plasmon resonance sensor based on MXene and antimonene with an adhesive layer of TiO2 is numerically analyzed, using the transfer matrix method (TMM). First, the Au thickness is optimized at 48 nm. Then, antimonene and MXene layers are optimized to achieve high sensitivity with minimum reflectance. The sensitivity of the proposed SPR biosensor without using the TiO2 layer is 178.76°/RIU, which shows 6.34% sensitivity improvement than conventional SPR. The use of TiO2 as an adhesive layer between prism and gold (Au) enhances the sensitivity up to 224.26°/RIU, which is 33.7 and 25.77% better than conventional and proposed SPR biosensor without using TiO2, respectively. This is due to the attractive optical sensing properties of MXene (highly metallic conductivity) and antimonene (high carrier mobility, strong spin–orbit coupling, and stability). Here, antimonene is used as a biomolecular recognition element (BRE) layer, as it absorbs more biomolecules stably due to higher binding energies and larger surface area, even better than graphene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, the elastic and plastic properties of the 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 pristine and transition metal (TM)-doped antimonene are studied through DFT calculations. Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn atoms are selected as the doping atoms. It was observed that Young’s and bulk moduli of both 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 pristine structure would decrease while affected by the doping atoms. The highest reduction in the Young’s and bulk moduli of the 2 × 2 nanosheets has occurred in the Cr- and Ti-doped structures, respectively, while the same reduction was observed in the V- and Ti-doped structures in the 3 × 3 nanosheets. In addition, it was shown that all of the investigated structures express isotropic behavior since the obtained Young’s moduli of these nanostructures have negligible difference along armchair and zigzag directions. Finally, the loading is further increased to investigate the plastic behavior of these structures. The results showed that except for 2 × 2 Sc-doped structure under biaxial loading, the yield strain of all doped nanosheets would decrease under uniaxial and biaxial loadings. The highest reduction in the yield strain of the 2 × 2 nanosheets under biaxial loading has been observed in Cu-doped nanosheet while in 3 × 3 nanosheets, the highest reduction has occurred in Cu-, Fe-, and Zn-doped nanosheets under the same condition. As for the yield strain of the doped 2 × 2 nanosheets while affected by the uniaxial loading, Cu- and Zn-doped nanosheets experienced the highest reduction while in 3 × 3 nanosheets, the highest reduction has been observed for Cr-doped nanosheet under the same condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimonene (Sb) is a novel kind of two-dimensional (2D) material that is predicted to be promising for various applications, such as water splitting and semiconductor devices. Several methods have been reported to prepare Sb nanoflakes/nanofilms; however, it is still relatively difficult to prepare Sb nanofilms. In this work, a method of low-power magnetron sputtering deposition was used for the preparation of Sb nanofilms with lateral dimensions on the centimeter scale and controllable film thickness. It was found that the control of the deposition temperature is important for the final crystalline structure of the nanofilms. Furthermore, the application of the nanofilms as a catalyst for water splitting (hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER)) was demonstrated.

We present an implementation of spin–orbit coupling (SOC) for density functional theory band structure calculations that makes use of Gaussian basis sets. It is based on the explicit evaluation of SOC matrix elements, both the radial and angular parts. For all-electron basis sets, where the full nodal structure is present in the basis elements, the results are in good agreement with well-established implementations such as VASP. For more practical pseudopotential basis sets, which lack nodal structure, an ad-hoc increase of the effective nuclear potential helps to capture all relevant band structure variations induced by SOC. In this work, the non-relativistic or scalar-relativistic Kohn–Sham Hamiltonian is obtained from the CRYSTAL code and the SOC term is added a posteriori. As an example, we apply this method to the Bi(111) monolayer, a paradigmatic 2D topological insulator, and to mono- and multilayer Sb(111) (also known as antimonene), the former being a trivial semiconductor and the latter a topological semimetal featuring topologically protected surface states.