One of the materials used in modern technology is borophene. More than two decades ago a group of physicists could predict its existence since they used various computer simulations that described how boron atoms could bond together to form a thinner layer of a material that had only one atom of thickness. This material has numerous applications in the technological field and with the development every time better results can be obtained.
In this article we are going to tell you about all the characteristics and uses of borophene.
Key features
When borophene was discovered, technology did not make it possible to manufacture a material that had such fine characteristics as it does today. The expectations of the scientific groups working on these borophene crystals are quite high, since it has endless applications in attractive fields. We find applications in superconductivity and battery manufacturing, among others. Although in this I am counting it seems more than graphene, borophene promises.
Boron is the chemical element used to make this material. It is a semiconductor that allows to conduct electrical electricity or act as an insulator depending on pressure, temperature, radiation or other conditions. Being a semimetal, it has characteristic properties of those elements that are metals and those that are non-metals.
The earth's crust of our planet contains little boron. It can be extracted from rocks such as borax or colemanite. These rocks are formed naturally due to the evaporation of water that is rich in salts from some lakes. These lakes are subject to high temperatures and are located in desert areas, whose climate is completely arid. Dissolved boron can also be found in the sea due to the precipitation of particles that are suspended in the atmosphere.
To be able to make a borophene sheet the atoms need to be bonded together so that they form a single layer that is a single atom thick. These are one of the characteristics that make it different from other materials. This means that it is simply necessary to be able to link all these atoms in a way that generates a single layer of atoms. Achieving this is not easy. This difficulty largely explains the time that has passed since the material we know as borophene was discovered until scientists have successfully manufactured their laboratories. In order to manufacture this material, various simulations have been carried out using computers to be able to estimate what are the necessary variables that this material needed to be able to bond in a single layer of atoms.
Manufacture of borophene
To make borophene, a very similar procedure has been used that is used to produce synthetic diamond. This procedure It is known as chemical vapor deposition. It is interesting to know that this process of chemical vapor deposition consists of achieving that a gas that was at a high temperature and that contains boron atoms can condense on a surface that is very homogeneous. This surface must be composed of pure silver. Pure silver must be at a temperature much lower than that of the gas so that it can condense and crystallize on it. This is how it manages to adopt a unique form in which it is composed of a layer of atoms.
The choice to use pure silver is not equally random. These atoms are known to acquire a fairly uniform crystal structure and texture. By having a very uniform surface structure, it can force the boron atoms to adopt a configuration similar to this surface. When the gas comes into contact with the surface of the pure silver it is much cooler the gas manages to crystallize with a similar structure. This is how a flat hexagonal grid-shaped structure is achieved.
The device that is generated is a chemical vapor deposition chamber. The plasma is violet in color and it is a gas that was at a high temperature and that contains the particles that are going to be deposited and consolidated in the material that is being manufactured. However, it must be taken into account that the layer of boron atoms is not completely regular because some atoms come to establish bonds with the other 6 atoms that the element has. Most of them only establish bonds with 4-5 more atoms. This causes the generation of numerous holes in the structure that are not only harmful, but are also responsible for some of the physicochemical properties that borophene has as a whole.
Borophene Material Expectations
Given the main characteristics that we have discussed about borophene, there are certain expectations both by the public and by the scientific community. Two of the characteristics that explain why graphene has generated so much expectation is because of the extreme hardness of the material and its high flexibility. The most normal thing is that an element that is very resistant and lasted has less flexibility. It is therefore surprising that all the scientists who are involved in the creation of borophene have confirmed that the material is more flexible and harder than graphene.
Scientists claim that this material has a higher hardness than diamond. In addition, it is an excellent conductor of electricity as it has a high heat conductivity index. This index is responsible for measuring the capacity it has to transport energy in the form of heat. Another of the characteristics for which it generates so much expectation is that it is very light and under the right pressure and temperature conditions it behaves like a superconductor. It has a great capacity to capture hydrogen atoms and can act in a chemical reaction as a reagent. All these properties make borophene, one of the most interesting materials on the planet, recently discovered.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about borophen and its characteristics.