The Covalent Functionalization of Layered Black Phosphorus by Nucleophilic Reagents

Abstract

Layered black phosphorus has been attracting great attention due to its interesting material properties which lead to a plethora of proposed applications. Several approaches are demonstrated here for covalent chemical modifications of layered black phosphorus in order to form P-C and P-O-C bonds. Nucleophilic reagents are highly effective for chemical modification of black phosphorus. Further derivatization approaches investigated were based on radical reactions. These reagents are not as effective as nucleophilic reagents for the surface covalent modification of black phosphorus. The influence of covalent modification on the electronic structure of black phosphorus was investigated using ab initio calculations. Covalent modification exerts a strong effect on the electronic structure including the change of band-gap width and spin polarization.

Keywords: black phosphorus; covalent modifications; phosphorenes; surface analysis; surface chemistry.