Recent Progress on Antimonene: A New Bidimensional Material

Antimonene, defined in sensu stricto as a single layer of antimony atoms, is recently the focus of numerous theoretical works predicting a variety of interesting properties and is quickly attracting the attention of the scientific community. However, what places antimonene in a different category from other 2D crystals is its strong spin-orbit coupling and a drastic evolution of its properties from the monolayer to the few-layer system. The recent isolation of this novel 2D material pushes the interest for antimonene even further. Here, a review of both theoretical predictions and experimental results is compiled. First, an account of the calculations anticipating an electronic band structure suitable for optoelectronics and thermoelectric applications in monolayer form and a topological semimetal in few-layer form is given. Second, the different approaches to produce antimonene-mechanical and liquid phase exfoliation, and epitaxial growth methods-are reviewed. In addition, this work also reports the main characterization techniques used to study this exotic material. This review provides insights for further exploring the appealing properties of antimonene and puts forward the opportunities and challenges for future applications from (opto) electronic device fabrication to biomedicine.