Among two-dimensional atomic crystals, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is one of the most remarkable materials to fabricate heterostructures revealing unusual properties. We perform first-principles calculations to determine whether intercalated metal
atoms and vacancies can mediate interfacial coupling and influence the structural and electronic properties of the graphene/hBN heterostructure. Metal impurity atoms (Li, K, Cr, Mn, Co, and Cu) as extrinsic defects between the graphene and hBN sheets produce $n$-doped graphene. We also consider intrinsic vacancy defects and find that a boron monovacancy in hBN act as a magnetic dopant for graphene whereas a nitrogen monovacancy in hBN serves as a nonmagnetic dopant for graphene. In contrast, smallest triangular vacancy defects in hBN are unlikely to result in significant changes in the electronic transport of graphene. Our findings reveal that the hBN layer with some vacancies or metal impurities enhance the interlayer coupling in the graphene/hBN heterostructure with respect to charge doping and electron scattering.
Using density functional theory, we study physical properties of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) with the substitutional carbon pair defect. We also consider the Stone-Wales (SW) rearrangement of the C-C pair defect in the BNNT. The formation energy
of an SW defect of the carbon dimer is approximately 3.1 eV lower than that of the SW-transformed B-N pair in the undoped BNNT. The activation energies show that the SW defect in the C-doped BNNT may be experimentally observed with a higher probability than in the undoped BNNT. Finally, we discuss the localized states originating from the carbon pair impurities.
