Researchers at Penn State have recently discovered that borophene, a two-dimensional material made of boron, has properties that surpass graphene, the 2D version of carbon. Borophene is more conductive, thinner, lighter, stronger and more flexible than graphene. The team, led by Dipanjan Pan, a professor at Penn State, published their groundbreaking work in ACS Nano.
Borophene closely resembles carbon in terms of atomic weight and electron structure but exhibits even more remarkable properties. This study is the first to investigate the biological interactions of borophene and the first to introduce chirality to borophene structures. Chirality involves the physical property of mirroring like the difference between left and right hands. In molecules, chirality can result in biological or chemical units existing in two non-identical versions similar to left and right mittens. While these versions can mirror each other exactly, a left mitten will never fit the right hand as well as it fits the left hand. This study sheds light on the potential applications and interactions of borophene in nanotechnology and biomaterials.
