Unusual properties of icosahedral boron-rich solids

Abstract

Icosahedral boron-rich solids are materials containing boron-rich units in which atoms reside at an icosahedron's 12 vertices. These materials are known for their exceptional bonding and the unusual structures that result. This article describes how the unusual bonding generates other distinctive and useful effects. In particular, radiation-induced atomic vacancies and interstitials spontaneously recombine to produce the “self-healing” that underlies these materials’ extraordinary radiation tolerance. Furthermore, boron carbides, a group of icosahedral boron-rich solids, possess unusual electronic, magnetic and thermal properties. For example, the charge carriers, holes, localize as singlet pairs on icosahedra. The unusual origin of this localization is indicated by the absence of a concomitant photo-ionization. The thermally assisted hopping of singlet pairs between icosahedra produces Seebeck coefficients that are unexpectedly large and only weakly dependent on carrier concentration. These properties are exploited in devices: (1) long-lived high-power high-capacity beta-voltaic cells, (2) very high temperature thermoelectrics and (3) solid-state neutron detectors.