Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SF4-O008 Invited Talk
BORON IN TWO DIMENSIONS – BOROPHENE PREDICTIONS,
SYNTHESIS, PROPERTIES
Boris Yakobson 1
1 Rice University, MSNE, United States.
While pure boron structures have been well studied by a number of researchers
over decades, my group interest was triggered initially by the possibility—at that
time merely theoretical—of pure boron fullerene cages, B 80 in particular.
“Unfolding” it into a plane seemed very inviting, to open a whole realm of 2D
boron polymorphs [1]. Next big challenge—and this point some details will be
covered in the talk—was how such planar forms can be possibly made, perhaps
with special choice of the substrates, and what lattice structures 2D B can adapt.
Experimental realization followed promptly, first on Ag facets and soon on Al
and Cu. Metallic no-gap band structure of borophene suggested exploration of
plasmons [2], superconductivity [3], Dirac-cone signatures, and how the charge
donation the metal-substrate or even an “FET” gating can affect the ground state
lattice configuration [4]. A satisfying aspect of this line of research has been that
theory and experiment work hand to hand, with a prediction-discovery cycle
being relatively short in time, an illustration of MGI realization [5]. Prospects of
this material success, applications, possible challenges or perhaps
disappointments will also be discussed.
1 Zhang, Penev, BIY, Nature Chemistry, 8, 525–527 (2016); idem. Chem. Soc.
Rev. 46, 6746-6763 (2017).
2 Huang, Shirodkar, BIY, JACS, 139, 17181–17185 (2017).
3 Penev, Kutana, BIY, Nano Lett., 16, 2522–2526 (2016).
4 Zhang et al. Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 56, 15421–15426 (2017); Shirodkar
et al. Science Bulletin, 63, 270–271 (2018).
5 Brotchie, Nature Rev Mater, DOI: 10.1038/natrevmats.2016.83 (2016).
Acknowledgment:
This work mostly supported by the US DOE, the ONR, and the Robert Welch
Foundation (C-1590).
Keywords: boron, two-dimensional, materials-theory
Presenting authors email: biy@rice.edu