Experimental Realization of Fluoroborophene.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Borophene, a 2D Dirac material, has excellent properties but lacks a bandgap for electronics and sufficient sites for energy/catalysis.
• Fluorination can introduce a bandgap and electron injection sites in borophene's lattice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize fluorinated borophene (fluoroborophene) with controlled fluorine content.
• To investigate the electronic and catalytic properties of fluoroborophene.

Main Methods:

• Facile synthesis using a potassium fluoride-assisted solvothermal-sonochemical combinatorial approach.
• Characterization of fluoroborophene monolayers with controlled fluorine content (12-35%).
• Density functional theory (DFT) calculations to corroborate experimental findings.

Main Results:

• Synthesized fluoroborophene monolayers with lateral dimensions from 50 nm to 5 µm.
• Observed tunable visible-range bandgap (≈1.5-2.5 eV) dependent on fluorine content.
• Demonstrated good stability for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media.

Conclusions:

• Fluoroborophene exhibits tunable electronic properties and catalytic activity.
• The material's tunable bandgap, electrophilicity, and anchoring capabilities are promising for electronics, optoelectronics, spintronics, energy storage, and catalysis.