Relative stability of planar clusters B11, B12, and B13 in neutral- and charged-states

Abstract

Theoretically, within the diatomic model, the relative stability of most abundant boron clusters B11, B12, and B13 with planar structures in neutral, positive and negative charged-states is studied. According to the specific (per atom) binding energy criterion, B12+ (6.49 eV) is found to be the most stable boron cluster, while B11– + B13+ (5.83 eV) neutral pair is expected to present the preferable ablation channel for boron-rich solids. Obtained results would be applicable in production of boron-clusters-based nanostructured coating materials with super-properties such as lightness, hardness, conductivity, chemical inertness, neutron-absorption, etc., making them especially effective for protection against cracking, wear, corrosion, neutron- and electromagnetic-radiations, etc.

Effect of Static Atomic Charges on Small Elemental Clusters: Evidence from Boron

“…Results obtained in this way are summarized in reviews [16,17]. In [18], the binding energy problem was specially analyzed for B 11 , B 12 and B 13 , the three most abundant boron clusters.…”

Construction of semiclassical interatomic B–B pair potential to characterize all-boron nanomaterials

“…Boron nanoclusters' ground state parameters-bond lengths, specific (per atom) binding energy, atomic vibration frequencies, etc.-can be estimated on the basis of interatomic B-B pair potentials depended on a few rigorously chosen semiempirical parameters-see the paper and also the review of Chkhartishvili [8,9] which summarize results of similar attempts. Same approach has been found useful for the characterization of the relative stability of small (quasi) planar boron clusters, including the most abundant species B11, B12, and B13 in different charge states [10,11] .…”