Boron may be elemental, but it's certainly not basic. The 2D form of the element, called borophene, holds immense promise for application in energy, sensors and information storage, but more work is needed, according to a research team from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
They published a review of recent work in borophene-based materials on Feb. 9 in Nano Research Energy.
"Borophene is a rising star monoelemental 2D material," said Guoan Tai, professor in the State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures and the Laboratory of Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, College of Aerospace Engineering in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "Although many challenges exist in the experimental synthesis of borophene, it has made some exciting experimental progress in the fields of energy, sensing and information storage in recent years."
According to Tai, borophene is predicted to have several unique physical and chemical properties, but there has been insufficient research to experimentally verify these characteristics. The predicted properties include mechanical compliance, optical transparency, ultrahigh thermal conductivity, superconductivity and more.
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