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Welcome

Our Research in animation

Welcome to Boron Rich Nanostructures (BoRN) Research Group. We work on the interfacial science of nanosheets: a fast emerging family of nanomaterials. We have developed a new class of nanosheets that are rich in boron, an element that has always sought immense interest from the scientific community. These nano structures exhibit a characteristic quasi-2D morphology with high lateral dimensions (~microns) and nanoscale thickness (<10 nm). This planar geometry renders nanosheets properties at the extremes of all known materials and provide platforms to utilize the rich chemistry of boron.  2D Boron is gradually gaining significant attention after the experimental realisation of borophene followed by the theoretical predictions. Our research involves the fundamental studies on metal boride derived nanosheets as well as the practical applications in which these can be utilised.

This animated video explains in a simplified manner the different facets of our research work on boron nanosheets 

OUR LATEST RESEARCH

GALLERY 

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Our recent review article appeared on the front cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. In this article, we have not only reviewed the progress in this field of metal diboride nanosheets (which are very similar to graphene), but we've also coined a new term XBenes (like graphene) to name this emerging family of metal boride nanosheets.

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Our findings on the superlative ability of boron-rich nanosheets to store hydrogen got published in Small. We reported an increase the hydrogen storage by ~50 times using our nanosheets. This is one step closer to hydrogen fuel economy where several future technologies will require hydrogen to be stored in hydrogen-powered vehicles.

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In this collaborative work we found that the TiB2 nanosheets discovered by us enable ultrafast charging of Li ion batteries while sustaining >10,000 cycles. The magic is in its carpet like structure and the beautiful chemistry of B and Ti.

FUNDING 

Seed Funding

IIT Gandhinagar

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INSPIRE Faculty

Award, Department 

of Science & Technology, Govt. of India

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Startup Research Grant for Young Scientists, Science and Engineering Research Board, Govt. of India

Core Research Grant (Individual Centric), Science and Engineering Research Board, Govt. of India

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