Materials Chemistry and Physics, vol.337, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
This study investigates the adsorption and sensing performance of ZnO doped MoSe2 (ZnO–MoSe2) nanosheets for detecting adenine (C5H5N5) and guanine (C5H5N5O) nucleobases. The binding energy calculations indicates that the ZnO doped MoSe2 nanosheets are structurally stable. The significant interaction between the ZnO and MoSe2 monolayer is confirmed using the electron density difference analysis. The electronic and geometric properties of novel ZnO–MoSe2 nanosheets were examined after the adsorption of C5H5N5 and C5H5N5O nucleobases on the surface. The adsorption energy results indicate the strong interaction between the nucleobases and ZnO–MoSe2 nanosheets. The N and O atoms of C5H5N5 and C5H5N5O molecules exhibit substantial adsorption effect on the ZnO sites of ZnO–MoSe2 nanosheets. The pristine MoSe2 monolayer exhibits semiconductor properties, and after the binding ZnO, the modified ZnO–MoSe2 monolayer still shows semiconducting behavior with reduced band gap. Our results reveal that the novel ZnO doped MoSe2 nanosheets could be utilized as highly efficient biosensing materials for detection of C5H5N5 and C5H5N5O nucleobases.