From Borophene to Indiene: recent advances and future directions in 2D icosagens-based materials

Abstract

Over the years, the discovery of graphene has fueled the search for new two-dimensional (2D) materials, most of which are derived from group 14 or 15 of the periodic table. These materials have been extensively explored for various biological, energy, and environmental applications. However, due to the saturation of applications from these materials, researchers have shifted their attention to icosagens, which are group 13 elements. The review article focuses on the emerging field of the 2D materials based on icosagens, which include borophene, aluminene, gallenene, and indiene. Though the 2D configuration of boron (borophene) is a new material, a lot of theoretical and experimental work for this has been reported. Amongst these, 2D forms of aluminum (aluminene), gallium (gallenene), and indium (indiene) are the newest addition to the 2D materials family and have been mainly studied by theoretical modeling. The review article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the progress and potential of these materials, highlighting their synthesis, properties, potential applications, and challenges. Moreover, it emphasizes the need for further research in developing synthesis methods, maintaining structural stability, characterizing their properties, theoretical modeling, and integrating them into practical devices and systems.