TY - JOUR
T1 - Borophene Synthesis on Au(111)
AU - Kiraly, Brian
AU - Liu, Xiaolong
AU - Wang, Luqing
AU - Zhang, Zhuhua
AU - Mannix, Andrew J.
AU - Fisher, Brandon L.
AU - Yakobson, Boris I.
AU - Hersam, Mark C.
AU - Guisinger, Nathan P.
N1 - Funding Information:
Use of the Center for Nanoscale Materials, an Office of Science user facility, was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. M.C.H. and X.L. acknowledge funding from the Office of Naval Research (N00014-17-1-2993). Work at Rice (Z.Z. and B.I.Y.) was supported by DOE Grant No. DE-SC0012547. Work at NUAA was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11772153).
PY - 2019/4/23
Y1 - 2019/4/23
N2 - Borophene (the first two-dimensional (2D) allotrope of boron) is emerging as a groundbreaking system for boron-based chemistry and, more broadly, the field of low-dimensional materials. Exploration of the phase space for growth is critical because borophene is a synthetic 2D material that does not have a bulk layered counterpart and thus cannot be isolated via exfoliation methods. Herein, we report synthesis of borophene on Au(111) substrates. Unlike previously studied growth on Ag substrates, boron diffuses into Au at elevated temperatures and segregates to the surface to form borophene islands as the substrate cools. These observations are supported by ab initio modeling of interstitial boron diffusion into the Au lattice. Borophene synthesis also modifies the surface reconstruction of the Au(111) substrate, resulting in a trigonal network that templates growth at low coverage. This initial growth is composed of discrete borophene nanoclusters, whose shape and size are consistent with theoretical predictions. As the concentration of boron increases, nanotemplating breaks down and larger borophene islands are observed. Spectroscopic measurements reveal that borophene grown on Au(111) possesses a metallic electronic structure, suggesting potential applications in 2D plasmonics, superconductivity, interconnects, electrodes, and transparent conductors.
AB - Borophene (the first two-dimensional (2D) allotrope of boron) is emerging as a groundbreaking system for boron-based chemistry and, more broadly, the field of low-dimensional materials. Exploration of the phase space for growth is critical because borophene is a synthetic 2D material that does not have a bulk layered counterpart and thus cannot be isolated via exfoliation methods. Herein, we report synthesis of borophene on Au(111) substrates. Unlike previously studied growth on Ag substrates, boron diffuses into Au at elevated temperatures and segregates to the surface to form borophene islands as the substrate cools. These observations are supported by ab initio modeling of interstitial boron diffusion into the Au lattice. Borophene synthesis also modifies the surface reconstruction of the Au(111) substrate, resulting in a trigonal network that templates growth at low coverage. This initial growth is composed of discrete borophene nanoclusters, whose shape and size are consistent with theoretical predictions. As the concentration of boron increases, nanotemplating breaks down and larger borophene islands are observed. Spectroscopic measurements reveal that borophene grown on Au(111) possesses a metallic electronic structure, suggesting potential applications in 2D plasmonics, superconductivity, interconnects, electrodes, and transparent conductors.
KW - Au(111)
KW - allotrope
KW - borophene
KW - scanning tunneling microscopy
KW - synthesis
KW - two-dimensional materials
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U2 - 10.1021/acsnano.8b09339
DO - 10.1021/acsnano.8b09339
M3 - Article
C2 - 30844248
AN - SCOPUS:85063538082
VL - 13
SP - 3816
EP - 3822
JO - ACS Nano
JF - ACS Nano
SN - 1936-0851
IS - 4
ER -