Bromine functionalisation of diamond: An ab initio study

Immobilisation of organic molecules on diamond surfaces is of great interest for biomedical applications. While H, F and Cl terminations, as a linker, have been studied extensively, the bromination of diamond is not fully understood. We have performed ab initio simulations to investigate the chemisorption of Br onto C- and H-terminated diamond (100) surfaces. We find that due to steric interaction, 100% surface coverage of Br is not stable, however, surface coverage up to around 50% is theoretically achievable. The chemisorption energies corresponding to lower surface coverages of Br are found comparable to those of hydrogen. Partial surface coverages (25 and 50%) of Br on C-terminated diamond exhibit nearly equal positive electron affinities of 0.45 and 0.52 eV, respectively. Addition of hydrogen reduces the electron affinity and for 25% of Br on an otherwise H-terminated surface, a negative electron affinity of 0.57 eV is calculated.