Category Archives: Press releases

Can Two-Dimensional Boron Superconduct?

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Rice University scientists predict 2-D material – no longer theoretical – has unique propertiesimg4news_small

Rice University scientists have determined that two-dimensional boron is a natural low-temperature superconductor. In fact, it may be the only 2-D material with such potential.

Rice theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his co-workers published their calculations that show atomically flat boron is metallic and will transmit electrons with no resistance. The work appears this month in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

The hitch, as with most superconducting materials, is that it loses its resistivity only when very cold, in this case between 10 and 20 kelvins (roughly, minus-430 degrees Fahrenheit). But for making very small superconducting circuits, it might be the only game in town.

– See more at Rice News

The latest fashion: Graphene edges can be tailor-made

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Rice University theory shows it should be possible to tune material’s properties

Graphene nanoribbons can be enticed to form favorable "reconstructed" edges by pulling them apart with the right force and at the right temperature, according to researchers at Rice University. The illustration shows the crack at the edge that begins the formation of five- and seven-atom pair under the right conditions. Illustration by ZiAng Zhang

Theoretical physicists at Rice University are living on the edge as they study the astounding properties of graphene. In a new study, they figure out how researchers can fracture graphene nanoribbons to get the edges they need for applications.

New research by Rice physicist Boris Yakobson and his colleagues shows it should be possible to control the edge properties of graphene nanoribbons by controlling the conditions under which the nanoribbons are pulled apart.

In the work, which appeared this month in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Nanoscale, the Rice team used sophisticated computer modeling to show it’s possible to rip nanoribbons and get graphene with either pristine zigzag edges or what are called reconstructed zigzags.

– See more at: Rice News

Why do nanotubes grow chiral?

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Rice University theorists determine factors that give tubes their chiral angles

Many a great idea springs from talks over a cup of coffee. But it’s rare and wonderful when a revelation comes from the cup itself.

Rice University theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson, acting upon sudden inspiration at a meeting last year in Arlington, Va., obtained a couple of spare coffee cups from a server and a pair of scissors and proceeded to lay out – science fair-style – an idea that could have far-reaching implications for the nanotechnology industry.

As reflected in a new paper in Nature Communications, Yakobson and his Rice colleagues, postdoctoral researcher Vasilii Artyukhov and research scientist Evgeni Penev, had come up with the seed (or perhaps, bean) of a simple formula that describes why nanotubes have chirality. Chirality is the property that describes the angle of the carbon atom hexagons that make up a nanotube’s walls.

– See more at: Rice News

Phosphorus a promising semiconductor

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Rice University physicists find 2-D form pays no heed to defects

Defects damage the ideal properties of many two-dimensional materials, like carbon-based graphene. Phosphorus just shrugs.

That makes it a promising candidate for nano-electronic applications that require stable properties, according to new research by Rice University theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his colleagues.

In a paper in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters, the Rice team analyzed the properties of elemental bonds between semiconducting phosphorus atoms in 2-D sheets. Two-dimensional phosphorus is not theoretical; it was recently created through exfoliation from black phosphorus.

– See more at: Rice News

Carbyne morphs when stretched

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Rice University calculations show carbon-atom chain would go metal to semiconductor

Applying just the right amount of tension to a chain of carbon atoms can turn it from a metallic conductor to an insulator, according to Rice University scientists.

Stretching the material known as carbyne — a hard-to-make, one-dimensional chain of carbon atoms — by just 3 percent can begin to change its properties in ways that engineers might find useful for mechanically activated nanoscale electronics and optics.

The finding by Rice theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his colleagues appears in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

– See more at: Rice News

Caps not the culprit in nanotube chirality

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Rice study narrows the possibilities for gaining control of nanotube type

A single-walled carbon nanotube grows from the round cap down, so it’s logical to think the cap’s formation determines what follows. But according to researchers at Rice University, that’s not entirely so.

Theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his Rice colleagues found through exhaustive analysis that those who wish to control the chirality of nanotubes – the characteristic that determines their electrical properties – would be wise to look at other aspects of their growth.

In the study by Yakobson, research scientist Evgeni Penev and postdoctoral researcher Vasilli Artyukhov that was published recently by the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, the Rice researchers found that the elastic energy landscapes involved in cap formation are not strong enough to dictate the nanotube’s chirality….more

Flat boron by the numbers

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Rice University researchers calculate what it would take to make new two-dimensional material

It would be a terrible thing if laboratories striving to grow graphene from carbon atoms kept winding up with big pesky diamonds.

“That would be trouble, cleaning out the diamonds so you could do some real work,” said Rice University theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson, chuckling at the absurd image.

Yet something like that keeps happening to experimentalists working to grow two-dimensional boron. Boron atoms have a strong preference to clump into three-dimensional shapes rather than assemble into pristine single-atom sheets, like carbon does when it becomes graphene. And boron clumps aren’t nearly as sparkly…more

Flat boron may take many forms

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When is nothing really something? When it leads to a revelation about boron, an element with worlds of unexplored potential.

Theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his team at Rice University have taken an unusual approach to analyzing the possible configurations of two-dimensional sheets of boron, as reported this week in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters. more…

Rice professor’s nanotube theory confirmed

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Air Force Research Laboratory experiment shows chirality of tube controls speed of growth

The Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, has experimentally confirmed a theory by Rice University Professor Boris Yakobson that foretold a pair of interesting properties about nanotube growth: That the chirality of a nanotube controls the speed of its growth, and that armchair nanotubes should grow the fastest. more…

Graphene rips follow rules

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A press release from Rice University Office of Public Affairs / News & Media Relations covers recent work by our group published in Nano Letters:

Rice University simulations show carbon sheets tear along energetically favorable lines

HOUSTON — (Jan. 5, 2012) — Research from Rice University and the University of California at Berkeley may give science and industry a new way to manipulate graphene, the wonder material expected to play a role in advanced electronic, mechanical and thermal applications.

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Rice physicists dig theoretical wells to mine quantum dots

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Graphane is the material of choice for physicists on the cutting edge of materials science, and Rice University researchers are right there with the pack – and perhaps a little ahead.

Researchers mentored by Boris Yakobson, a Rice professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of chemistry, have discovered the strategic extraction of hydrogen atoms from a two-dimensional sheet of graphane naturally opens up spaces of pure graphene that look – and act – like quantum dots.

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