Borophene-Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles: Synthesis and Memory Device Application

Borophene has been proposed to be an energetic and promising material for electronic, optical, and thermal domains, but these applications have not been still achieved due to the metallic feature and unstable structure. The core–shell structure is a promising candidate to promote borophene for extensive applications because of fabulous multifunctional properties benefitting from the combination of diverse core and shell materials. As a favorite inner core material, Fe3O4 nanoparticles are investigated to enhance the electronic property of the core–shell particles owing to their unique semimetallic nature. Therefore, the combination of borophene and Fe3O4 nanoparticles is expected to develop high-performance electronic and sensing devices. Here, we demonstrate that borophene-functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles in large quantities can be prepared by heating the mixture of hydrothermally synthesized and uniform Fe3O4 nanoparticles and sodium borohydride powders under the hydrogen atmosphere as a protective gas. The structure of the shell χ4-borophene with 10 atoms per unit has been verified by combining the first-principles calculations and experimental measurements. Furthermore, a nonvolatile rewritable memory device based on the core–shell nanostructures is fabricated, and the device shows an ultrahigh on/off current ratio of 8.23 × 105 and an ultralow reset operating voltage of around 0.19 V as well as good stability.