Nanoboron (An overview)

Abstract

Elemental boron possesses a variety of micro and nano-structured forms, which can find applications in number of techniques and technologies. The paper presents a review, which aims to describe in brief methods of producing, atomic structures, and available data on physical properties of micro and nano-structured species of boron: molecules and clusters; crystals stabilized by intrinsic imperfections; amorphous films and powders; dispersed crystals; filamentary and fibrous structures; nanowires, nanoribbons, and nanobelts; planar and quasi-planar sheets, nanotubes and fullerenes; quasi and nanocrystals.