Borophene on silver grows freely into an atomic ‘skin’

Date posted
Funding Agency
(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office, the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at Rice and Northwestern universities, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Argonne National Laboratory have discovered that they can grow elongated hexagon-shaped flakes of borophene – the atom-thick allotrope of boron – by using a substrate made of silver. This discovery will help streamline the manufacture of borophene, which shows potential for use in wearable and transparent electronics, plasmonic sensor, and energy storage.