Controlling a thickness dependence of electronic properties for
two-dimensional (2d) materials is among primary goals for their large-scale
applications. Herein, employing a first-principles computational approach, we
predict that Si interaction with multilayer phosphorene (2d-P) can result in
the formation of highly stable 2d-SiP and 2d-SiP2 compounds with a weak
interlayer interaction. Our analysis demonstrates that these systems are
semiconductors with band gap energies that can be governed by varying the
thickness and stacking order. Specifically, siliconization of phosphorene
allows to design 2d-SiPx materials with significantly weaker thickness
dependence of electronic properties than that in 2d-P and to develop ways for
their tailoring. We also reveal the spatial dependence of electronic properties
for 2d-SiPx highlighting difference in effective band gaps for different
layers. Particularly, our results show that central layers in the multilayer 2d
systems determine overall electronic properties, while the role of the
outermost layers is noticeably smaller
