Progressively doping graphene with Si: from graphene to silicene, a numerical study

For three different sizes of graphene nanosheets, we computed the Density of states when these nanosheets are progressively doped with an increasing percentage of S i atoms. The pure graphene nanosheets are semi conducting or not depending on their size. The pure silicene nanosheets are conducting with a conduction due to π (pi) electrons. The S i doped graphene nanosheets are also semi conducting or not depending on their size: for small sizes, there are semi conducting and they become conducting for larger sizes and larger percentages of S idoping. We computed also the total electronic energy which is linked to the mechanical stability of all our nanosheets. This mechanical stability decreases regularly as a function of the S i percentage of doping , but for the pure silicene nanosheets, the mechanical stability decreases more abruptly.