Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial composed of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice with sp² hybrid orbitals. It has excellent optical, electrical, and mechanical properties and is hailed as the king of disruptive new materials.
Boronene, a single-atom-thick boron sheet, is a two-dimensional material composed of a single-atom-thick layer of boron atoms. It is stronger, lighter, and more flexible than graphene and may become another "miracle nanomaterial" after graphene.
However, the synthesis of monolayer borones is challenging.
Graphene can be peeled from inherent layered graphite using something as simple as transparent tape, while borene cannot be peeled from bulk boron alone. Instead, obtaining borene usually requires fabrication and growth, thus requiring a substrate as a carrier or support.
If growing monolayer borenes is difficult, then growing multilayer atomic planar borenes seems impossible.
However, engineers at Northwestern University recently created a boronene with a thickness of only two atoms, breaking the natural tendency of boron to form non-planar clusters outside the single-atom-layer limit.
"Theoretical predictions suggest that bilayer borene is a promising battery material," and "the space between the layers provides a place to accommodate lithium ions."
