Saturday, January 31, 2009

Boron boride

All known structures of elemental boron contain icosahedral B12 clusters. Recently, a new form of elemental boron called γ-B28 has been characterised. Its structure resembles that of a sodium chloride, with the B12 icosahedra and B2 pairs playing the roles of anions and cations, respectively.

“The example of γ-B28 shows that significant ionicity can occur in elemental solids”, the authors wrote. “Because of the charge transfer between these two components, the new phase can be regarded as a boron boride (B2)δ+(B28)δ–.”

1 comment:

Tamara Kulikova said...

looks like crochet, but I can't find a suitable photo to illustrate just now