Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Karim M. Omambac, Marko A. Kriegel, Marin Petrovic, Birk Finke, Christian Brand, Frank J. Meyer zu Heringdorf, Michael Horn-von Hoegen
Summary: The CVD growth of bielemental 2D-materials using molecular precursors is a complex process with competing microscopic processes that limit the optimal growth parameters. By studying the selective formation of hBN and borophene using a borazine precursor, we derive a temperature-pressure phase diagram and find an optimum growth temperature for hBN.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Tianchao Niu, Miao Zhou
Summary: Boron, the lightest metalloid element, has similar characteristics to carbon in planar and cage molecules. Recent studies have focused on the various structures of mono- and bi-layer boron and their potential applications in materials science. This review highlights the latest achievements in the epitaxial growth of bilayer borophene on noble metal surfaces, discussing the roles of substrate and growth conditions. Bilayer borophene exhibits superior properties compared to single-layer borophene, but its synthesis remains challenging and requires further research.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Samuel W. LaGasse, Nicholas V. Proscia, Cory D. Cress, Jose J. Fonseca, Paul D. Cunningham, Eli Janzen, James H. Edgar, Daniel J. Pennachio, James Culbertson, Maxim Zalalutdinov, Jeremy T. Robinson
Summary: This study demonstrates that hBN slabs tuned to the correct thickness can act as optical waveguides, enabling direct coupling of light emission from encapsulated layers into waveguide modes. Experimental and theoretical approaches provide essential details for leveraging hBN slab waveguides in future research and applications.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Igor Aharonovich, Jean-Philippe Tetienne, Milos Toth
Summary: Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has emerged as a fascinating platform for exploring quantum emitters and their applications. This Mini Review discusses the unique properties of hBN quantum emitters and highlights progress in their implementation in practical devices, specifically in engineering and integrating with scalable photonic resonators. It also highlights the discovery of spin defects in hBN and their potential utility for quantum sensing.
Review
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Camille Maestre, Berangere Toury, Philippe Steyer, Vincent Garnier, Catherine Journet
Summary: Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is crucial in 2D material-based technologies, with a focus on high crystal quality, purity, and defect density for new optoelectronic applications. Self-standing hBN crystals offer high-quality nanosheets, and their synthesis process is key to ensuring crystal size, purity, and defects are well-controlled and understood.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Ainikulangara Sundaran Bhavya, Harris Varghese, Achu Chandran, Kuzhichalil Peethambharan Surendran
Summary: In the era of IoT and sensor networks, the demand for clean and sustainable power sources is high. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) using liquid-phase exfoliated 2D-hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) coated on biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BoPET) and paper showed significantly enhanced power output compared to traditional assemblies. The BNNSs/BoPET-paper TENG device demonstrated impressive electrical performance, including high output voltage and current density, as well as a peak electric power density under load testing.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Adam Krzysztof Szczerba, Julia Kucharek, Jan Pawlowski, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Wojciech Pacuski
Summary: We investigated the possibility of growing a three-dimensional semiconductor on a two-dimensional substrate, and successfully reported for the first time the growth of CdTe quantum wells on hBN using molecular beam epitaxy. The presence of the quantum wells was confirmed through photoluminescence measurements, and it was found that growth on the nearly flat hBN substrate was significantly different from growth on bulk substrates, requiring much lower temperatures.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
K. Harikrishnan, Gajendar Singh, Amisha Kushwaha, Varun Pratap Singh, Umesh Kumar Gaur, Manu Sharma
Summary: The presence of organic pollutants in the environment poses significant health risks, therefore, monitoring and controlling their levels is imperative. In this study, g-C3N4/BN nanocomposites were synthesized and used as a basis for an electrochemical sensor for detecting hazardous hydroquinone. The sensor demonstrated good sensitivity and practicality.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Jasneet Kaur, Adel Malekkhouyan, Gurpreet S. Selopal, Zhiming M. Wang, Federico Rosei, Hadis Zarrin
Summary: The functionalized hexagonal boron nitride (FhBN) nanoflakes with high proton conductivity were successfully synthesized and demonstrated excellent dispersibility and stability. When composed with Nafion solution, the FhBN-Nafion nanocomposite PEMs showed significantly improved proton conductivities in both in-plane and through-plane directions compared to pure Nafion, making it a promising material for electrochemical energy devices.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Atefe Farahani, Masumeh Foroutan, Masoud Jamshidi, Mahnaz Sababkar, Ahmad Boudaghi
Summary: The thermal conductivity of hexagonal structures of boron nitride and borophene was investigated using reactive molecular dynamics simulation. The effect of boron and nitrogen in the hexagonal structure was studied by creating five other hypothetical structures. The TC of these structures was calculated and compared with literature values. It was found that the stability of structures influenced their thermal conductivity, and differences in partial charge affected heat transfer.
Review
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Albert F. Rigosi, Antonio L. Levy, Michael R. Snure, Nicholas R. Glavin
Summary: The era of two-dimensional materials truly began with the discovery of graphene over 15 years ago. This review explores the growth, electrical measurements, and applications in optics and photonics of these versatile materials, anticipating the exciting directions enabled by research in this field up to the present decade.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-MATERIALS
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Seokho Moon, Jiye Kim, Jeonghyeon Park, Semi Im, Jawon Kim, Inyong Hwang, Jong kyu Kim
Summary: Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is attracting significant interest due to its extraordinary properties in optoelectronics, quantum optics, and electronics. It can be used as an ideal substrate and insulating layer for other 2D materials, and has potential applications in emerging electronics and photonics fields.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Junkai Ren, Plinio Innocenzi
Summary: Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a highly attractive 2D material due to its remarkable properties, and its combination with other components to form heterostructures shows great potential for developing advanced functional devices. High-quality 2D h-BN structures with fewer defects can maximize its intrinsic properties, while controlled introduction of multiple defects in 2D h-BN can create new properties and advanced functions. Engineering of heterojunctions, including interface bonding design, plays a crucial role in developing advanced applications based on h-BN heterostructures in the future.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Phuong Vuong, Suresh Sundaram, Vishnu Ottapilakkal, Gilles Patriarche, Ludovic Largeau, Ashutosh Srivastava, Adama Mballo, Tarik Moudakir, Simon Gautier, Paul L. Voss, Jean-Paul Salvestrini, Abdallah Ougazzaden
Summary: This article presents the study of vdW epitaxy of 3D GaN/AlGaN on 2D h-BN grown on sapphire substrates. The results demonstrate that the orientation of the substrate affects the growth and alignment of h-BN, and the morphology and crystalline quality of GaN/AlGaN are greatly influenced by the 2D h-BN layers.
ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS
(2022)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Andrew E. E. Naclerio, Piran R. R. Kidambi
Summary: This article reviews scalable approaches for the synthesis of high-quality mono/multilayer h-BN, discusses the challenges and opportunities for each method, and contextualizes their relevance to emerging applications. Maintaining a stoichiometric balance and layer stacking order are identified as main challenges for h-BN synthesis, and addressing these aspects can guide the synthesis of other layered materials.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Jincheng Lei, Yu Xie, Alex Kutana, Ksenia Bets, Boris Yakobson
Summary: Recently, it has been found that halide salts can promote the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD). In this study, the molecular mechanisms during the salt-assisted CVD growth of MoS2 monolayers were investigated using first-principles calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. The sulfurization of molybdenum oxyhalides was explored and found to have much lower activation barriers than molybdenum oxide, which is present during conventional saltless growth. The rate-limiting barriers were found to depend linearly on the electronegativity of the halogen element, with oxyiodide having the lowest barrier. This study reveals the promoting mechanisms of halides and allows growth parameter optimization for faster growth of MoS2 monolayers in CVD synthesis.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Kevin M. M. Wyss, John T. T. Li, Paul A. A. Advincula, Ksenia V. Bets, Weiyin Chen, Lucas Eddy, Karla J. J. Silva, Jacob L. L. Beckham, Jinhang Chen, Wei Meng, Bing Deng, Satish Nagarajaiah, Boris I. I. Yakobson, James M. M. Tour
Summary: A rapid and scalable method, using flash Joule heating (FJH), has been developed to produce graphitic 1D materials (F1DM) from polymers. By tuning the parameters, F1DM with controllable diameters and morphologies can be obtained, and hybrid materials with turbostratic graphene can also be synthesized. The F1DM outperform commercially available carbon nanotubes in nanocomposites. Compared to current synthetic strategies, FJH synthesis significantly reduces energy demand and global-warming potential, offering a cost-effective and sustainable route to convert waste plastic into valuable nanomaterials.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Boris I. Yakobson, Ksenia V. Bets
Summary: The study demonstrates how selective growth of desired chiral carbon nanotubes can be achieved by manipulating the movement of the reaction zone.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Abhijit Biswas, Qiyuan Ruan, Frank Lee, Chenxi Li, Sathvik Ajay Iyengar, Anand B. Puthirath, Xiang Zhang, Harikishan Kannan, Tia Gray, A. Glen Birdwell, Mahesh R. Neupane, Pankaj B. Shah, Dmitry A. Ruzmetov, Robert Vajtai, Manoj Tripathi, Alan Dalton, Boris I. Yakobson, Pulickel M. Ajayan
Summary: This article introduces the research progress of two-dimensional van der Waals (2D-vdW) layered hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and points out its potential application value as an excellent dielectric layer in 2D-based nano-electronics. By pulsed laser deposition technique, ultra-wide bandgap h-BN thin films are directly grown on low-miscut atomically smooth highly insulating c-plane sapphire substrates, showing remarkable unidirectional triangular-shape crystal growth morphology. This unidirectional domain growth is attributed to the change in film-substrate interfacial symmetry and energy, resulting in step-edge guided nucleation and breaking the degeneracy of nucleation sites of random domains.
APPLIED MATERIALS TODAY
(2023)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Christian Tantardini, Alexander G. Kvashnin, Maryam Azizi, Xavier Gonze, Carlo Gatti, Tariq Altalhi, Boris I. Yakobson
Summary: The electronic properties of fluorinated and hydrogenated ultrathin diamond films with different surface orientations and thicknesses were investigated using first-principles calculations and electron density analysis. It was found that fluorine induces an occupied surface electronic state, while hydrogen modifies the occupied bulk state and induces unoccupied surface states. Hydrogenated ((2) over bar 110) diamond films were shown to be the most suitable for field-emission displays, exhibiting rapid convergence of the work function with fewer layers compared to fluorinated counterparts. Additionally, a new quasi-quantitative descriptor for surface dipole moment based on the Tantardini-Oganov electronegativity scale was introduced.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Jun-Jie Zhang, Tariq Altalhi, Boris I. Yakobson
Summary: This paper investigates the effect of mechanical flexibility of two-dimensional materials on monolayer ferroelectrics. It reveals a coupling between ferroelectricity and bending of the layer, and shows the significant influence on the material's mechanics and ferroelectric properties through first-principles calculations and Monte Carlo simulations.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zhili Hu, Minmin Xue, Zhuhua Zhang, Wanlin Guo, Boris I. Yakobson
Summary: Chemical growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials with controlled morphology on undulated substrates can lead to a variety of topological defects and grain boundaries. This study uses a Monte Carlo method to show that 2D materials grown on periodically undulated substrates follow three distinct growth modes: defect-free conformal, defect-free suspension, and defective conformal. The growth on non-Euclidean surfaces can cause stress accumulation and eventually result in the suspension of the materials, leading to the formation of grain boundaries.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Sunny Gupta, Wenjing Wu, Shengxi Huang, Boris I. Yakobson
Summary: Single photons, known as flying qubits, have great potential for scalable quantum technologies. However, finding an ideal single-photon emitter (SPE) is a challenge. Recent research has shown that two-dimensional (2D) materials are promising hosts for bright SPEs operating at ambient conditions. This Perspective examines the metrics required for an SPE source and highlights the interesting physical effects exhibited by 2D materials, which make them excellent candidates. The performance of SPE candidates in hexagonal boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides will be assessed, along with the remaining challenges and strategies to overcome them.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Jincheng Lei, Ksenia V. Bets, Evgeni S. Penev, Boris I. Yakobson
Summary: Atomistic simulations demonstrate that hydrogen accelerates the decomposition of ferrocene and prevents catalyst encapsulation. The catalytic dehydrogenation of methane on liquid iron nanoparticles suggests that carbon dimers are the dominant on-surface species. These atomistic insights help us understand the catalyst formation and carbon nanotube nucleation in the early stages of the FCCVD growth process and optimize it for potential scale-up.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lu Qiu, Xiuyun Zhang, Xiao Kong, Izaac Mitchell, Tianying Yan, Sung Youb Kim, Boris I. Yakobson, Feng Ding
Summary: In chemistry, the theory of aromaticity or pi bond resonance is crucial for understanding the stability and properties of organic molecules. This study presents an analogue theory for sigma bond resonance in flat boron materials, allowing for the determination of two-center two-electron and three-center two-electron bond distributions without quantum calculations. Based on this theory, three rules are proposed for drawing Kekule-like bonding configurations and exploring properties of flat boron materials. Additionally, the theory is applied to explain the stability of neutral borophene with approximately 1/9 hole occupancy and the effect of charge doping on borophene's optimal hole concentration. This theory enhances our understanding of boron materials and facilitates the rational design of boron-based materials.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Ana-Maria Stratulat, Christian Tantardini, Maryam Azizi, Tariq Altalhi, Sergey V. Levchenko, Boris I. Yakobson
Summary: We propose the Zn2V(1-x)NbxN-3 alloy as a promising material for optoelectronic applications, specifically for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Accurate electronic structure calculations using density-functional theory reveal a tunable band gap range suitable for developing bright LEDs as potential replacements for Ga(1-x)In(x)N systems. The effects of configurational disorder are considered, and the band gap's nonlinear behavior is evaluated for different concentration scenarios.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Sunny Gupta, Wenjing Wu, Shengxi Huang, Boris I. Yakobson
Summary: Single photons, known as flying qubits, have great potential for scalable quantum technologies. Finding an ideal single-photon emitter is a challenge, but recent studies have shown that 2D materials have the potential to host such emitters that are bright and functional under normal conditions. This Perspective discusses the necessary metrics for an emitter and highlights the interesting physical effects exhibited by 2D materials, making them excellent candidates. It also assesses the performance of SPE candidates discovered in hexagonal boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides, and proposes strategies to overcome the remaining challenges.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Luqing Wang, Sharmila N. Shirodkar, Zhuhua Zhang, Boris I. Yakobson
Summary: The equilibrium shape of crystals is crucial for their aesthetic appeal and practical applications. By calculating auxiliary edge energies, this study demonstrates how to predict the shape of challenging materials.
NATURE COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE
(2022)
