Publication date: 15th December 2025
Borophene, an emerging 2D elemental material, has garnered significant attention for next-generation flexible electronics due to its exceptional metallic conductivity and mechanical compliance. However, the scalable synthesis of high-quality borophene remains a critical challenge, as conventional liquid-phase exfoliation methods often suffer from low yields and uncontrolled oxidation.
Herein, we report a robust, eco-friendly, and scalable cryo-exfoliation strategy to synthesize high-purity, few-layer borophene nanosheets. By leveraging the thermal shock effect of liquid nitrogen quenching, we demonstrate that rapid temperature changes induce significant interlayer expansion in bulk boron. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations further elucidate this mechanism, revealing that the cryogenic treatment effectively weakens interlayer van der Waals interactions, thereby facilitating efficient exfoliation under mild sonication.
The resulting borophene nanosheets exhibit large lateral dimensions (up to 10 µm) and preserve the intrinsic metallic polymorphs with negligible oxidation, as confirmed by HRTEM and XPS analyses. To demonstrate its functional potential, the cryo-exfoliated borophene was integrated into polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrices to fabricate flexible piezoelectric and triboelectric nanogenerators. The incorporation of borophene significantly enhances the electroactive $\beta$-phase content and surface charge trapping capability of the composite. Consequently, the self-powered device delivers outstanding energy harvesting performance, generating voltage outputs of ~36.7 V under finger tapping and up to ~57.8 V under foot tapping. This work establishes a sustainable synthesis pathway for borophene and demonstrates its practical viability in self-powered wearable systems. [1]
This research was funded partially by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC). Professor Ajayan Vinu is the recipient of an ARC Discovery Project (DP240102528) funded by the Australian Government.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.