Borophene's tryst with stability: exploring 2D hydrogen boride as an electrode for rechargeable batteries

Graphene's emergence can be viewed as a positive upheaval in 2D materials research. Along the same line, the realization of a related elemental 2D material, borophene, is another breakthrough. To circumvent the stability issues of borophene, which is reported to have been synthesized on metallic substrates under extreme conditions, hydrogenation of borophene (otherwise called as borophane or hydrogen boride or boron hydride) has been a plausible solution, but only proposed computationally. A recent report (H. Nishino, T. Fujita, N. T. Cuong, S. Tominaka, M. Miyauchi, S. Iimura, A. Hirata, N. Umezawa, S. Okada, E. Nishibori, A. Fujino, T. Fujimori, S. Ito, J. Nakamura, H. Hosono and T. Kondo, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139(39), 13761–13769) brings to fore its experimental realization. Our current study delves into the possibilities of employing this intriguing 2D hydrogen boride as anodes in Li/Na ion batteries. Using first-principles density functional theory methods, we computed relevant properties such as the ion (Li/Na) adsorption behavior, the possible pathways of ionic diffusion with the estimation of barriers as well as the theoretical specific capacities and average voltages to uniquely demonstrate that this material is of particular significance for battery applications. It is noted that the use of hydrogen boride leads to a high specific capacity of 861.78 mA h g−1 for Li ions, which is remarkably higher than the value reported in relation to its computationally predicted structure. Furthermore, Na ion intercalation leads to negative voltage profiles, implying the unsuitability of 2D hydrogen boride for this particular ion. Our findings are timely and pertinent towards adding insightful details relevant to the progress of applications of 2D materials for energy storage.