Enhanced 1T′-Phase Stabilization and Chemical Reactivity in a MoTe2 Monolayer through Contact with a 2D Ca2N Electride

Among the widely studied 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), MoTe2 has attracted special interest for phase-change applications due to its small 2H-1T ' energy difference, yet a large scale phase transition without structural disruption remains a significant challenge. Recently, an interesting long-range phase engineering of MoTe2 has been realized experimentally by Ca2N electride. However, the interface formed between them has not been well understood, and moreover, it remains elusive how the presence of Ca2N would affect the basal plane reactivity of MoTe2. To address this, we performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations to investigate the potential of tuning the phase stability and chemical reactivity of a MoTe2 monolayer via interacting with Ca2N to form a van der Walls heterostructure. We found that the contact nature at the 2H-MoTe2/Ca2N interface is Schottky-barrier-free, allowing for the spontaneous electron transfer from Ca2N to 2H-MoTe2 to make it strongly n-type doped. Moreover, Ca2N doping significantly lowers the energy of 1T '-MoTe2 and dynamically triggers the 2H-to-1T ' transformation. The Ca2N-induced phase modulation can also be applied to tune the phase energetics of MoS2 and MoSe2. Furthermore, using H adsorption as the testing ground, we also find that the H binding on the basal plane of MoTe2 is enhanced after forming heterostructure with Ca2N, potentially providing basis for surface modification and other related catalytic applications.