Graphene has been heralded as a wonder material. Made of a single
layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb arrangement, graphene is stronger
pound-for-pound than steel and conducts electricity better than copper.
Since the discovery of graphene, scientists have wondered if boron,
carbon’s neighbor on the periodic table, could also be arranged in
single-atom sheets.
Theoretical work suggested it was possible, but the
atoms would need to be in a very particular arrangement.
Boron has one fewer electron than carbon and as a result can’t form
the honeycomb lattice that makes up graphene.
For boron to form a
single-atom layer, theorists suggested that the atoms must be arranged
in a triangular lattice with hexagonal vacancies — holes — in the
lattice.
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