# Research Progress and Applications of 2D Antimonene
## 1 Introduction  
As silicon transistor size decreases continuously according to [PERSON]'s law and gradually approaching its physical limit, new devices are proposed to suppress the short-channel effect, such as Fin Field Effect Transistor (FinFET) and Gate All Around (GAA) transistor. In addition, the two-dimensional material, an all-new material, is a promising channel material due to its excellent gate control capability [1]. Two-dimensional materials (2D) are typically thinner than the mean free path of most particle transport, including phonon, electron and exciton, which forces them to follow ballistic transport. This quantum confinement effect fundamentally alters the electronic properties of two-dimensional thin film materials, which are ideal for basic research and new electronic applications. Since graphene was successfully isolated in 2004 [2], two-dimensional materials have attracted wide attention. However, graphene's zero-band gap disadvantage makes it challenging in switching devices of transistors. Subsequently, graphene-like layered structures, such as molybdenum disulfide [3], boron nitride [4], and silicene [5], attracted researchers' attention. For the transition metal-sulfur compound with band gap, the theoretical carrier value is low and the carrier transport is badly scattered, resulting in the poor performance of the transition metal-sulfur compound transistor [6], so scientists turn their attention to main group V elements. In 2015, [PERSON] et al. [7] successfully prepared black phosphorus and proved that it has high carrier mobility, but its poor stability makes it difficult to be applied in devices.  
[PERSON] et al. [8] first reported the theoretical research results of the layered materials: antimonene, whose band gap changes from metal to semi-metal, and the single-layer antimonene, that has a large band gap of 2.28 eV. Subsequently, the study of antimonene attracted people's attention. Antimonene, which has high carrier mobility [9; 10; 11], stability [12], excellent thermoelectric performance, large band gap and spin orbit coupling, has great potential for electron, photoelectron and spintronic development [13; 14]. The mechanical and electronic properties of monomolecular membrane of antimonene can also be regulated by uniaxial and biaxial tensile strain [15; 16; 17]. Under tensile strain, antimonene can be transformed from an indirect band gap semiconductor to a direct one, oreven semi-metal [18; 19]. Especially under strong electric field, their band gap gradually closes due to the field-induced motion of near free electron states [20]. It is found that antimonene can be tuned to a two-dimensional topological insulator (TI) under anisotropic in-plane strain by first-principle calculation [21]. The tunable bulk gap makes antimonene a material of choice for achieving the quantum spin Hall effect (QSH) at high temperatures, meeting the requirements of future low-power electronic devices [22] and converting \(\beta\)-Sb bilayer from semi-metal to superconductor through electron doping [23]. It has nonlinear characteristic behavior in optical properties [24; 25], and has applications in laser [26; 27] and laser protection [28][PERSON] The theoretical research of antimonene has been very mature, but its experimental preparation is still worthy of further exploration. At present, the real single-layer preparation of antimonene thin films prepared in the laboratory has low yield and small size, which limits the experimental verification and practical application of antimonene.  
In this paper, we will analyze the mechanical exfoliation and liquid phase exfoliation methods and molecular beam epitaxy for the preparation of antimonene and study the factors affecting the preparation of antimonene and explore the rules for the preparation of antimonene to provide a reference for the next-stage experimental preparation of antimonene and summarize the applications of antimonene in sensing and medicine, especially the huge potential application in the photoelectric field.