Ab Initio Computational Study of Chromate Molecular Anion Adsorption on the Surfaces of Pristine and B- or N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene

Density functional theory (DFT) computations of the electronic structures of undoped, B- and N-doped CNT(3,3), CNT(5,5) carbon nanotubes, and graphene with adsorbed chromate anions CrO42- were performed within molecular cluster approach. Relaxed geometries, binding energies, charge differences of the adsorbed CrO42- anions, and electronic wave function contour plots were calculated using B3LYP hybrid exchange-correlation functional. Oscillator strengths of electronic transitions of CrO42- anions adsorbed on the surfaces of studied carbon nanostructures were calculated by the TD-DFT method. Calculations reveal covalent bonding between the anion and the adsorbents in all studied adsorption configurations. For all studied types of adsorbent structures, doping with N strengthens chemical bonding with CrO42- anions, providing a ~2-eV increase in binding energies comparatively to adsorption of the anion on undoped adsorbents. Additional electronic transitions of CrO42- anions appear in the orange-green spectral region when the anions are adsorbed on the N-doped low-diameter carbon nanotubes CNT(3,3) and CNT(5,5).