TY - JOUR

T1 - Hexagonal boron-carbon fullerene heterostructures

T2 - Stable two-dimensional semiconductors with remarkable stiffness, low thermal conductivity and flat bands

AU - Mortazavi, Bohayra

AU - Rémond, Yves

AU - Fang, Hongyuan

AU - Rabczuk, Timon

AU - Zhuang, Xiaoying

N1 - Funding Information: B. M. and X. Z. appreciate the funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy within the Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD (EXC 2122, Project ID 390833453). B. M and T. R. are greatly thankful to the VEGAS cluster at Bauhaus University of Weimar for providing the computational resources.

PY - 2023/8

Y1 - 2023/8

N2 - Among exciting recent advances in the field of two-dimensional (2D) materials, the successful fabrications of the C60 fullerene networks has been a particularly inspiring accomplishment. Motivated by the recent achievements, herein we explore the stability and physical properties of novel hexagonal boron-carbon fullerene 2D heterostructures, on the basis of already synthesized B40 and C36 fullerenes. By performing extensive structural minimizations of diverse atomic configurations using the density functional theory method, for the first time, we could successfully detect thermally and dynamically stable boron-carbon fullerene 2D heterostructures. Density functional theory results confirm that the herein predicted 2D networks exhibit very identical semiconducting electronic natures with topological flat bands. Using the machine learning interatomic potentials, we also investigated the mechanical and thermal transport properties. Despite of different bonding architectures, the room temperature lattice thermal conductivity of the predicted nanoporous fullerene heterostructures was found to range between 4 and 10 W/mK. Boron-carbon fullerene heterostructures are predicted to show anisotropic but also remarkable mechanical properties, with tensile strengths and elastic modulus over 8 and 70 GPa, respectively. This study introduces the possibility of developing a novel class of 2D heterostructures based on the fullerene cages, with attractive electronic, thermal and mechanical features.

AB - Among exciting recent advances in the field of two-dimensional (2D) materials, the successful fabrications of the C60 fullerene networks has been a particularly inspiring accomplishment. Motivated by the recent achievements, herein we explore the stability and physical properties of novel hexagonal boron-carbon fullerene 2D heterostructures, on the basis of already synthesized B40 and C36 fullerenes. By performing extensive structural minimizations of diverse atomic configurations using the density functional theory method, for the first time, we could successfully detect thermally and dynamically stable boron-carbon fullerene 2D heterostructures. Density functional theory results confirm that the herein predicted 2D networks exhibit very identical semiconducting electronic natures with topological flat bands. Using the machine learning interatomic potentials, we also investigated the mechanical and thermal transport properties. Despite of different bonding architectures, the room temperature lattice thermal conductivity of the predicted nanoporous fullerene heterostructures was found to range between 4 and 10 W/mK. Boron-carbon fullerene heterostructures are predicted to show anisotropic but also remarkable mechanical properties, with tensile strengths and elastic modulus over 8 and 70 GPa, respectively. This study introduces the possibility of developing a novel class of 2D heterostructures based on the fullerene cages, with attractive electronic, thermal and mechanical features.

KW - 2D heterostructures

KW - First-principles

KW - Fullerene

KW - Machine learning potentials

KW - Semiconductor

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85167601555&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.48550/arXiv.2308.05434

DO - 10.48550/arXiv.2308.05434

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85167601555

VL - 36

JO - Materials Today Communications

JF - Materials Today Communications

M1 - 106856

ER -