Bandgap Engineering of Hydroxy-Functionalized Borophene for Superior Photo-Electrochemical Performance

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting boron nanosheets (few-layer borophene) have been theoretically predicted, but their band gap tunability has not been experimentally confirmed. In this study, hydroxy-functionalized borophene (borophene-OH) with tunable band gap was fabricated by liquid-phase exfoliation using 2-butanol solvent. Surface-energy matching between boron and 2-butanol produced smooth borophene, and the exposed unsaturated B sites generated by B-B bond breaking during exfoliation coordinated with OH groups to form semiconducting borophene-OH, enabling a tunable band gap of 0.65-2.10 eV by varying its thickness. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements demonstrated that the use of borophene-OH to fabricate working electrodes for PEC-type photodetectors significantly enhanced the photocurrent density (5.0 mu A cm(-2)) and photoresponsivity (58.5 mu A W-1) compared with other 2D monoelemental materials. Thus, borophene-OH is a promising semiconductor with great optoelectronic potential.