Influences of Stone–Wales defects on the structure, stability and electronic properties of antimonene: A first principle study

Defects are inevitably present in materials, and their existence strongly affects the fundamental physical properties of 2D materials. Here, we performed first-principles calculations to study the structural and electronic properties of antimonene with Stone–Wales defects, highlighting the differences in the structure and electronic properties. Our calculations show that the presence of a SW defect in antimonene changes the geometrical symmetry. And the band gap decreases in electronic band structure with the decrease of the SW defect concentration. The formation energy and cohesive energy of a SW defect in antimonene are studied, showing the possibility of its existence and its good stability, respectively. The difference charge density near the SW defect is explored, by which the structural deformations of antimonene are explained. At last, we calculated the STM images for the SW defective antimonene to provide more information and characters for possible experimental observation. These results may provide meaningful references to the development and design of novel nanodevices based on new 2D materials.