Metals in beta-rhombohedral boron

✍ Scribed by Joe Wong; Glen A. Slack

• Book ID: 103933518
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 126 KB
• Volume: 158
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-4526
• DOI: 10.1016/0921-4526(89)90415-8

✦ Synopsis

Beta-boron is a semiconductor with a band gap of 1.5 eV. It is hard and refractory with a very high melting point of 2300 K. It satisfies the "small atom and large number of atoms (105) per unit cell" criteria for potentially high thermoelectric efficiency. Crystallographically, beta-boron is made up of compact 812 and BTO polyhedral units and isolated B atoms, all linked together by strong, directional covalent bonds. These structural and bonding features create a very open structure in beta-boron. Assuming RB = 0.8811, the degree of space filling is estimated to be only 36%. Hence, the structure contains many holes that can interstitially accommodate a variety of metal atoms in the Periodic Table.