Growth mechanism of liquid Hg/solid β-HgS metal-semiconductor heterostructures

Density functional theory (DFT) was utilized to simulate the reactions occurred in the mixture solution of cysteine and Hg(II) ions with the ratio < 2. Simulation result shows that Hg ions will coordinate to cysteine by the thiol groups with the form of S–Hg₂ and S–Hg₃, and moreover, the content of free Hg ions can only be reduced by these two forms. OH^? plays an important role in the growth of β-HgS, because its nucleophilic substitution reaction supplies plenty of Hg–S–Hg radicals, which will be adsorbed onto the surface of liquid mercury ball and form the precursor of β-HgS(111) plane. Three valent bonds adsorption of Hg–S–Hg radicals onto the surface of Hg ball has more adsorption energy (?32.768 kcal mol^?1) than that of two valent bond adsorption (?20.882 kcal mol^?1). Hg balls will stop growing after completely covered with Hg–S–Hg radicals and their size will be limited. The growth direction of β-HgS is parallel to the “repelling” force, that is 111] direction in β-HgS lattice. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental observations, demonstrating that the DFT method can be taken as a very useful tool to interpret the solution reactions that cannot be solved by conventional methods.