Honeycomb boron: alchemy on aluminum pan?

• 来源期刊: 科学通报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2018,（5）
• 页码范围: 270-271
• 页数: 2页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Boron (B),the one-electron-lacking neighbor of carbon in the periodic table (and in the Latin alphabet),is identified by rather different chemistry as compared to C.This gives rise to rich allotropy of boron,which is seen in the possibility of its multiple bulk phases,diverse clusters,cage-like fullerenes,one-dimensional nanotubes and two-dimensional (2D) sheets.In brief,B and C have very little similarity in their structural and electronic properties;albeit for one,the 2D honeycomb sheet which appears isomorphic to the ultimate carbon allotrope-graphene.And this very structure,reported in this issue of Sci.Bull.by Li et al.[1],forms on a support familiar in every household-an aluminum pan.2D boron (borophene) exhibits rich polymorphism itself [2,3],and the honeycomb (O) structure is only one of the multitude of other forms.