α-phase is an allotrope antimony is in orthorhombic structure form.

The bulk α-phase can be seen as AB

stacking structure of α-phase antimonene. Theoretical calculations have foreseen that both the α-phase
and β-phase are stable (Wang, Pandey & Karna, 2015). The stable atomic structure of α-antimonene
was derived by the use of structure optimization based on the conjugate gradient method (Akturk,
Ozcelik & Ciraci, 2015). Electronic structure of the α-antimonene implies that the bilayer and trilayer α-
antimonene are both metallic, which is similar to the case of β-antimonene (Wang, Pandey & Karna,
2015).

β-phase antimonene comprises of buckled hexagonal rings that are meant of Sb atoms connected
through sp3 bonding. The bulk antimony can be seen as the ABC stacking of monolayer antimonene.
Different possible allotropes of monolayer antimonene have been studied, among which β-phase has
the lowest average binding energies (Zhang et al, 2016). β-phase antimonene is stable under ambient
conditions and therefore it is expected to be practically useful in electronic and optoelectronic
applications.

2D antimonene have been predicted to contain high stability as well as remarkable physical properties.
Since the discovery in the year 2015, 2D antimonene has gained popularity more rapidly because of its
unique optical and electronic properties.

synthesis
Different efforts have been made to exfoliate antimony into nanosheets (Ares, Aguilar-Galindo & Aldave,
2016). While synthesizing the nanosheets, organic solvents, for instance ethanol, isopropanol, are often
used during liquid exfoliation, but the yield is not ideal because some solvents are toxic and difficult to
remove (Xiao, Ren & Yang, 2020).

One of the ways is through liquid-phase exfoliation of a gray Sb powder inside an isopropyle alcohol
solution with a constant concentration of sodium hydroxide. The resulting metallic Sb nanosheets
contain ultrathin, fordable features and also large aspect ratios. The unique features render the metallic
Sb nanosheets behaving like graphene and enables to construct uniform, compacted films with other
nanosheets. Several hybrid films which are composed of metallic Sb nanosheets and graphene with
tunable densities are achieved. This liquid-phase exfoliation method resemble the reported processes
for layered materials of graphite as well as MoS2 to nanosheet-like counterparts through the interaction
of solvent molecules. During this process, metallic Powders are dispersed in various solvents for instance
isopropyle alcohol, dimethyl-sulfoxide hexane or alkali solution, so as to generate dark suspensions with
a constant concentration. IPA solvent containing a concentration of sodium hydroxide has been shown
to be the best choice to exfoliate Sb-nanosheets because of its suitable surface energy to the van der
Waals bonded surface.
Antimonene nanosheets can be prepared by lithium-ion intercalation, whereby a gram of micron-sized
particles are mixed with 200 mL of ethylene glycol and 0.8g of lithium hydroxide powder in a stainless
steel reactor together with Teflon lining, then followed by heating at 200 degrees centigrade for about
48 hours so as to ensure sufficient hydrothermal reaction. The product is then cooled to room
temperature, then transferred to a beaker and mixed with 100 mL of ethanol. The mixture is then
sonicated in an ice bath for 1 hour and centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 15 minutes, then washing is done
with pure water twice to produce antimonene nanosheets.
 Limitation
Two-dimansional antimony exhibits a large allotropic structural diversity that is influenced by its support
(Zhang, 2015). Therefore the two-dimensional heterostructure formation is important in 2D
antimonene integration. In addition to this, a lot of nonlayered metastable allotropes at high pressure
and thin film form are reported including simple cubic, body-centered cubic as well as hexagonally close-
packed Sb (Sun, Han, Chang & Chen, 2019). Majority of these phases are related through small atomic
rearrangements and some even have been suggested to show dependence in thickness phase
transitions in nanostructures (Lei, Zhao, Wang & Ibrahim, 2016). Therefore, this polymorphicity calls for
close control over the Sb’s structure during any synthesis scenario for various application fields.
Application
For the various possible Sb heterostructures, specifically 2D Sb interfaces are of prime importance for
two main reasons; first is in the context catalyst and energy applications, Sb hybrids are coming up as
highly useful materials combination for instance batteries, electrocatalysis and also supercapacitors,
Energy Storage
Antimonene is one of the potential material preferred for many applications in terms of their charge
carrier transport, air stability, temperature stability and even electrochemical activities (Ares, Abellan &
Zamora, 2017). The material’s high surface area of layered structure facilitates more electrode-
electrolyte interaction which takes place at the surface thereby enhancing the formation of double
layers (Liu & Peng, 2018). Therefore the specific capacitance of the two-dimensional material-based
super capacitor increases. The rapid reversible ionic adsorption and desorption kinetics in the electric
double layer dapacitance based materials drastically causes an increase of the power and energy
densities, ling cyclic stability, mechanical stability as well as structural stability (Mohamed, Manu & Jose,
2020). Most recent reports deliberate that 2D antimonene has super properties like fast charging Li/Na
ion batteries, elecrocatalysis and also effective water splitting applications (Ren, Liang & Zhang, 2019).
Finally, a novel 2D SnSb alloy with ultrathin features, a large aspect ratio and also largely exposed
surfaces is achieved through facile liquid-phase exfoliation approach. The ultrathin few-layer SnSb
nanosheets couldn’t only efficiently overcome the sluggish reaction of metal and lithium ions but also
alleviate the huge volume change of SnSb alloy during the process of lithiation. The result shown is that
a few-layer SnSb alloy gives a high reversible capacity of approximately 694 mA h g-1. This result
provides a new insight into alloy-based 2D nanomaterials and also sheds light on the application of 2D
alloys in next generation energy storage.
Properties of 2D antimony sheets

Thermal property

The thermal property analyzed by TG/DTA using NETZSCH STA 2500 instrument. A result analyzed by
the thermogravimetric analysis and also differential thermal analysis from 25 degrees Celsius to 80
degrees Celsius. Both samples contain a strong endothermic peak at 630 oC that corresponds to the
melting point of Sb. A TGA curves of ball-milled antimony and antimonene shows different stages of
weight loss. In the first stage, weight loss occurs at 400 to 456 oC. in the second stage, weight loss occurs
near the melting point of the material. For the case of antimonene, the weight loss starts at 451oC and
continues up to 652oC and a residual mass of 65% that us relatively higher and prolonged weight loss
compared to ball-milled antimony. From the above, it can be seen that antimony is one of the highly
volatile elements containing high vapour pressure. Thus, the material was evaporated at high
temperatures, thus resulting in drastic weight loss more so after the melting point. Also, the TGA curves
revealed that the weight loss is relatively higher for antimonene compared to antimony due to high
surface to volume ratio of exfoliated layered structure of antimonene.
Optical property

The density functional theory in between the random phase approximation foresees interesting optical
properties of two-dimensional antimonene monolayers that contain puckered and buckles structures.
The application of antimonene as an optic material comes up from its specific dielectric function,
absorption, reflectivity and also energy loss spectra. For both allotropes, a higher refractive index of up
to 3.6 is found in the UV part of the electromagnetic spectrum which allows applications as an inner
layer coating under UV absorbers.

Mechanical property