Properties of graphene/borophene etc.

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter sbrothy
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Properties
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the properties of borophene and its potential applications, particularly in the context of detecting hydrogen cyanide gas. Participants explore the implications of varying the thickness of layers in 2D materials, such as monolayers and multilayers, and how these variations might affect their properties.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant references a paper suggesting borophene's potential for detecting hydrogen cyanide gas and questions whether layers of varying thickness (3, 5, 7 atoms) could have distinct properties.
  • Another participant explains that layers of different thicknesses are typically referred to as monolayers or bilayers, and that these structures can exhibit significantly different properties, citing examples from transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs).
  • The concept of van der Waals heterostructures is introduced for structures made from several monolayers of different materials, while twisted monolayers or Moire superlattices are mentioned for multilayer systems of the same material with geometrically different layers.
  • A participant expresses appreciation for the information and reflects on the idea of considering bi- or polylayers, acknowledging the complexity of their properties.
  • Another participant confirms the terminology of multilayers as a more accurate description.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the terminology and the concept that different layer thicknesses can lead to different properties, though the extent of study on borophene specifically remains uncertain.

Contextual Notes

The discussion does not resolve the extent to which varying layer thicknesses in borophene have been studied, nor does it clarify the specific properties associated with these variations.

sbrothy
Gold Member
Messages
1,493
Reaction score
1,364
In a recent paper about borophene it shows promise for detecting hydrogen cyanide gas [1903.11304 - Review of Borophene and it's Potential Applications]. My question may seem rather simpleminded but I'm under no illusions regarding my physics knowledge so please bear with me:

Did anyone consider that perhaps layers of 3, 5, 7 (etc.) atoms thickness could have other properties? Does this concept have a name or does it simply not make any sense?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Usually that would not be considered as a layer of larger thickness, but a structure consisting of several layers.

For 2D materials, these different structures are usually called monolayers or bilayers. They usually show very different properties. For example for TMDCs, a monolayer may be a direct band gap semiconductor, while a bilayer may show an indirect bandgap.

When considering multilayer structures, there are several concepts which carry different names. If you want to consider a structure made out of several monolayers of different materials, this goes by the name of van der Waals heterostructures. If you want to consider a multilayer system of the same material, where the individual layers are geometrically different (e.g. rotated with respect to each other - this also has a huge influence on the properties of the system), this goes by the name of twisted monolayers or Moire superlattices.

However, I do not know to which extent this has been studied in Borophene.
 
Very informative. Thank you. I guess I was thinking monolayers, or rather bi- or maybe even polylayers (if again that makes any sense). I'm not surprised that they exhibit different properties. Fascinating.
 
Or rather multilayers as you say.
 

Similar threads

Replies
2
Views
424
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
2K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
7K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
3K
  • · Replies 45 ·
2
Replies
45
Views
5K
Replies
8
Views
5K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
4K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K