Nanomesh

[1] It consists of a single layer of boron (B) and nitrogen (N) atoms, which forms by self-assembly into a highly regular mesh after high-temperature exposure of a clean rhodium[1] or ruthenium[2] surface to borazine under ultra-high vacuum.

[1] In addition it shows the extraordinary ability to trap molecules[5] and metallic clusters,[2] which have similar sizes to the nanomesh pores, forming a well-ordered array.

These characteristics may provide applications of the material in areas like, surface functionalisation, spintronics, quantum computing and data storage media like hard drives.

h-BN nanomesh is a single sheet of hexagonal boron nitride, which forms on substrates like rhodium Rh(111) or ruthenium Ru(0001) crystals by a self-assembly process.

In addition to these exceptional stabilities, the nanomesh shows the extraordinary ability to act as a scaffold for metallic nanoclusters and to trap molecules forming a well-ordered array.

The lower inset shows a region of this substrate with higher resolution, where individual molecules are trapped inside the pores.

Such systems with wide spacing between individual molecules/clusters and negligible intermolecular interactions might be interesting for applications such as molecular electronics and memory elements, in photochemistry or in optical devices.

The nanomesh results after exposing the atomically clean Rh(111) or Ru(0001) surface to borazine by chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

Perspective view of nanomesh, whose structure ends at the back of the figure. The distance between two pore centers is 3.2nm, and the pores are 0.05nm deep.
Cross-section of nanomesh on rhodium showing pore and wire regions
Naphthalocyanine molecules evaporated onto the nanomesh. They only adsorb in pores, forming a well-defined pattern.
Decomposition of borazine on transition metal surfaces.