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Adsorption of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas molecules on a ZnS monolayer with weak van der Waals interactions is studied using the DFT + U method. From our calculation, the ZnS monolayer shows chemisorption with CO (E ads = −0.96 eV) and HF (E ads = −0.86 eV) gas molecules. Bader charge analysis shows that charge transfer is independent of the binding environment. A higher energy barrier for CO when migrating from one optimal site to another suggests that clustering may be avoided by the introduction of multiple CO molecules upon ZnS, while the diffusion energy barrier (DEB) for HF suggests that binding may occur more easily for HF gas upon the ZnS ML. Adsorption of the considered diatomic molecule also results in a significant variation in effective mass and therefore can be used to enhance the carrier mobility of the ZnS ML. Additionally, the calculation of recovery time shows that desirable sensing and desorption performance for CO and HF gas molecules can be achieved at room temperature (300 K).

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Using Density Functional Theory (DFT), 2D hexagonal silicene-ZnS-silicene trilayer heterostructure was studied with van der Waals correction as implemented in Grimme’s method. Small lattice mismatch of about 0.77% only between silicene and ZnS monolayer suggest ease in formation of sandwiched heterostructure. The negative value of total energy at 298 K from MD simulation confirms its ground state stability. Unlike monolayer silicene, our trilayer heterostructure exhibits a direct band gap of 0.63 eV in its equilibrium state. Calculated elastic moduli predict that Si-ZnS-Si has an enhanced ability to resist tensile and shear deformation than the pristine silicene and ZnS monolayer. Due to strong van der Waal’s interaction between the layers, Si-ZnS-Si has much lower thermal coefficient of linear expansion and therefore is more stable against any thermally induced deformation. When a transverse external electric field is applied, we observe direct-to-indirect band gap transition. On increasing the electric field further, the heterostructure remains indirect band gap semiconductor until it abruptly transforms to metallic nature at 1.0 V/Å. Theoretical prediction of heterostructure property presented in this work may provide valuable data for developing future nanoelectronic devices.