Borophene, “better than graphene”, could revolutionize bioelectronic technologies

Nanotechnology

Editorial of the Technological Innovation Website – 05/09/2024

Borophene

Graphene’s fame will hardly be surpassed, but the family of atomically thin materials is already enormous, including phosphorene, stanene, germanene and silicene and, more recently, ourene.

Another example is borophene, an atomically thin layer of the chemical element boron, synthesized for the first time in 2015. Even though it is virtually unknown to the public, borophene is more conductive, thinner, lighter, stronger and more flexible than graphene, which is a atomically thin layer of the element carbon.

And borophene has just opened up even more distance from its more famous relative, thanks to the work of Teresa Aditya and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University, in the USA.

The team managed to give borophene chirality – or handedness -, which drastically optimizes its connection with the biological world, potentially resulting in more advanced sensors, implantable medical devices and much more. This chirality, induced by a method never before used in borophene, allows the material to interact in unique ways with different biological units, such as cells and protein precursors.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to understand the biological interactions of borophene and the first report of generating chirality in borophene structures,” said Professor Dipanjan Pan. “Borophene is a very interesting material as it closely resembles carbon, including its atomic weight and electronic structure, but with more remarkable properties. Researchers are just beginning to explore its applications.”

Inorganic chirality

A central element of life, chirality refers to similar but not identical physicality, such as the left and right hands, which do not overlap their mirror image. In molecules, chirality can cause biological or chemical units to also exist in two versions that cannot be perfectly combined. And life uses only one form of molecular handedness.

One of the great advantages of borophene is that it is structurally polymorphic, which means that its atoms can be organized in different configurations, which give it different shapes and properties, in the same way that the same set of Lego blocks can be used to build different objects. .

Thus, it is possible to “tune” borophene so that it has the properties you want from it – and this now includes chirality. And, most importantly, this allows you to change the way the material interacts with cells and biological tissues. “Our study, for the first time, showed that various polymorphic structures of borophene interact with cells differently, and their cellular internalization pathways are uniquely dictated by their structures,” said Pan.

Chiral borophene

The researchers synthesized borophene platelets—similar to blood cells—using solution-state synthesis, which involves exposing a powdered version of the material in a liquid to one or more external factors, such as heat or pressure, until it becomes combine into the desired product.

“We made borophene by subjecting boron powders to high-energy sound waves and then mixing these platelets with different amino acids in a liquid to generate chirality,” said Pan. “During this process, we noticed that the sulfur atoms in the amino acids preferred to stick together. to borophene more than the nitrogen atoms of amino acids.”

The researchers exposed the chiralized borophene platelets to mammalian cells in a dish and observed that their handedness changed the way they interact with cell membranes and enter cells. Furthermore, certain amino acids, such as cysteine, bound to borophene in different locations, depending on their chiral handedness.

This could be used in future applications, such as the development of high-resolution contrast-enhanced medical images that can accurately track cellular interactions, or better drug delivery with programmed material-cell interactions. And understanding how borophene interacts with cells — and controlling those interactions — could one day lead to safer, more effective implantable medical devices.

And we cannot forget the already known properties of the material. “Borophene’s unique structure allows for effective magnetic and electronic control,” said Pan, noting that the material could have additional applications in healthcare, sustainable energy and more. “This study was just the beginning. We have several projects underway to develop biosensors, drug delivery systems and imaging applications for borophene,” she concluded.

Other news about:

More topics