  Electronic DNA sequencing using two-dimensional (2D) materials such as
graphene has recently emerged as the next-generation of DNA sequencing
technology. Owing to its commercial availability and remarkable physical and
conductive properties, graphene has been widely investigated for DNA sequencing
by several theoretical and experimental groups. Despite this progress,
sequencing using graphene remains a major challenge. This is due to the
hydrophobic nature of graphene, which causes DNA bases to stick to its surface
via strong {\pi}-{\pi} interactions, reducing translocation speed and
increasing error rates. To circumvent this challenge, the scientific community
has turned its attention to other 2D materials beyond graphene. One such
material is phosphorene. In this article, we performed first-principle
computational studies using density functional theory (DFT) to evaluate the
ability of phosphorene to distinguish individual DNA bases using two detection
principles, namely, nanopore and nanoribbon modalities. We observe that binding
energies of DNA bases are lower in phosphorene compared to graphene. The energy
gap modulations due to interaction with DNA bases are very significant in
phosphorene compared to graphene. Our studies show that phosphorene is superior
to graphene, and hence a promising alternative for electronic DNA sequencing.
