Researchers from Brown University have found evidence for a theoretical material they call “borophene” — a boron-based competitor to graphene.

Boron is carbon’s neighbor on the periodic table. Borophene has 36 boron atoms in a flat disc with a hexagonal hole in the middle.

Borophene is predicted to be fully metallic, whereas graphene is a semi-metal. That means borophene might end up being a better conductor than graphene, according to Lai-Sheng Wang, professor of chemistry at Brown.

Borophene can also potentially form two-dimensional sheets, similar to graphene. And Borophene’s boron-boron bond is also nearly as strong as the graphene’s carbon-carbon bond, said Wang.

The research involved a combination of laboratory experiments and computational modeling.

The researchers told KurzweilAI that a lot of work is still required to determine practical applications.

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Abstract of Nature Communications paper

Boron is carbon’s neighbour in the periodic table and has similar valence orbitals. However, boron cannot form graphene-like structures with a honeycomb hexagonal framework because of its electron deficiency. Computational studies suggest that extended boron sheets with partially filled hexagonal holes are stable; however, there has been no experimental evidence for such atom-thin boron nanostructures. Here, we show experimentally and theoretically that B₃₆ is a highly stable quasiplanar boron cluster with a central hexagonal hole, providing the first experimental evidence that single-atom layer boron sheets with hexagonal vacancies are potentially viable. Photoelectron spectroscopy of B₃₆⁻ reveals a relatively simple spectrum, suggesting a symmetric cluster. Global minimum searches for B₃₆⁻ lead to a quasiplanar structure with a central hexagonal hole. Neutral B₃₆ is the smallest boron cluster to have sixfold symmetry and a perfect hexagonal vacancy, and it can be viewed as a potential basis for extended two-dimensional boron sheets.