Discovering Structural, Electronic, and Excitonic Properties of Bulk, Nanostructured, and Doped C3N4 in Diamond- and Graphitic-Like Phases

Abstract

In this systematic density functional theory study, we compare a standard gradient-corrected functional (PBE) with a long-range hybrid functional (HSE06), with and without correction for the dispersion forces, relative to their ability to correctly reproduce structural and electronic properties of different bulk 3D C3N4 phases, encompassing diamond- and graphitic-like models. Corrugation is found to provide further stabilization to the layered structures with all methods. We observe that the HSE06-D3 method provides results in good agreement with experimental data and with more sophisticated G0W0 calculations. Based on that, we exploited the method to investigate the nature of the bulk triplet excitons in these C3N4 structures to evaluate the S0–T1 energy difference, the self-trapping triplet exciton energy, and the photoluminescence emission energy since this is a promising visible-light photocatalyst. Nanostructuring (0D and 2D) is another relevant aspect of these materials in practical applications; therefore, we have considered the effect of single- or multilayer exfoliation or space confinement in nanoparticles. Finally, we also discuss how the introduction of extrinsic dopants (e.g., S atoms) in the nanostructures modifies the atomic and electronic structure.