A novel borophene featuring heptagonal holes: a common precursor of borospherenes

作者:Mu, Yuewen*; Chen, Qiang; Chen, Na; Lu, Haigang; Li, Si-Dian*
来源:Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2017, 19(30): 19890-19895.
DOI:10.1039/c7cp03021e

摘要

We propose a novel stable borophene (referred to as H-borophene) by tiling seven-membered rings side by side, which is a novel construction pattern never reported in boron sheets or other sheets. It is able to serve as the common precursor of borospherenes (e.g., B-39(-), B-40, B-41(+), and B-42 (2+)). Interestingly, a Dirac point appeared at about 0.33 eV below the Fermi level. We found that nanotubes formed by rolling up H-borophene had a great advantage over other boron nanotubes in the case of high curvature, which accounted for the reason why heptagons were preferred in borospherenes. Our study not only proposes a common precursor of borospherenes, but also expands the construction patterns of monolayer sheets.