From planar boron clusters to borophenes and borospherenes

Lai-Sheng Wang

doi:10.1117/12.2254384

21 December 2016 From planar boron clusters to borophenes and borospherenes

Lai-Sheng Wang

Proceedings Volume 10174, International Symposium on Clusters and Nanomaterials; 1017402 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2254384
Event: International Symposium on Clusters and Nanomaterials, 2015, Richmond, Virginia, United States

Abstract

Photoelectron spectroscopy in combination with computational chemistry has been used over the past decade to systematically elucidate the structures and chemical bonding of sizeselected boron clusters. Small boron clusters have been found to be planar or quasi-planar with both delocalized σ and π bonding. A particularly interesting cluster is B₃₆, which has been found to possess a planar structure with a central hexagonal vacancy. The hexagonal B₃₆ can be viewed as a repeating unit to assemble atom-thin boron monolayers (dubbed borophenes). This finding provides the first indirect experimental evidence that borophenes with hexagonal vacancies are potentially viable. Another exciting discovery has been the observation and characterization of the first all-boron fullerenes. Photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the B₄₀ ⁻ cluster consisted of two isomers with very different electron binding energies. Global minimum searches led to two nearly degenerate isomers competing for the global minimum: a quasi-planar isomer and an unprecedented cage isomer. In the neutral, the B₄₀ cage is overwhelmingly the global minimum, which is the first all-boron fullerene to be observed and is named “borospherene”. There is evidence that there exists a family of borospherenes with B₂₈ being the smallest borospherene. It is expected that the pace of discovery will continue to accelerate in boron clusters, and more interesting structures and chemical bonds will be uncovered with heightened research interests and more sophisticated experimental and computational methods.

Citation Download Citation

Lai-Sheng Wang "From planar boron clusters to borophenes and borospherenes", Proc. SPIE 10174, International Symposium on Clusters and Nanomaterials, 1017402 (21 December 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2254384

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