Abstract
Inorganic boron-based nanostructures have great potential for field emission (FE), flexible displays, superconductors, and energy storage because of their high melting point, low density, extreme hardness, and good chemical stability. Until now, most researchers have been focused on one-dimensional (1D) boron-based nanostructures (rare-earth boride (REB6) nanowires, boron nanowires, and nanotubes). Currently, two-dimensional (2D) borophene attracts most of the attention, due to its unique physical and chemical properties, which make it quite different from its corresponding bulk counterpart. Here, we offer a comprehensive review on the synthesis methods and optoelectronics properties of inorganic boron-based nanostructures, which are mainly concentrated on 1D rare-earth boride nanowires, boron monoelement nanowires, and nanotubes, as well as 2D borophene and borophane. This review paper is organized as follows. In Section I, the synthesis methods of inorganic boron-based nanostructures are systematically introduced. In Section II, we classify their optical and electrical transport properties (field emission, optical absorption, and photoconductive properties). In the last section, we evaluate the optoelectronic behaviors of the known inorganic boron-based nanostructures and propose their future applications.
Highlights
Boron is very special, because it is the only nonmetallic element in group III, the lightest nonmetallic element in the periodic table, and excellent properties similar to carbon
1D nanostructures are widely used in field-effect transistors, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), photodetectors, solar cells, field emission displays, and sensors [29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]
To date, the synthesis methods of 1D inorganic boron-based nanostructures have been well described, they need to be further renewed to meet the requirements of their rapid developments
Summary
Because it is the only nonmetallic element in group III, the lightest nonmetallic element in the periodic table, and excellent properties similar to carbon. As one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, Dr Lipscomb was respectively awarded the 1976 and 1979 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry for his outstanding contribution to the configuration study of borane and excellent research on metal borides [7]. As the building blocks for the nanodevices, nanomaterials (including two-dimensional (2D) layered structures, one-dimensional (1D) nanowires and nanotubes, and zero-dimensional (0D) nanoparticles) have attracted more and more attention [8,9] Compared with their corresponding bulk counterparts, inorganic boron-based nanomaterials exhibit more fascinating optical and electrical transport behaviors due to their higher aspect ratio, larger specific surface area, and smaller size. We give the evaluations on the optoelectronic performances of inorganic boron-based nanostructures and propose their applications based on our research results
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