Northeastern University’s physicists, Swastik Kar and Srinivas Sridhar, did some groundbreaking discovery in their four-year project. What they found was a new material, made of boron, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. What’s more, it also shows magnetic, electrical, and optical properties along with with DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) thermal ones too. It has a vast field of applications – right from 20MP arrays for cellphone cameras to photodetectors and atomically thin transistors which would help in workings of the computer.
“We had to start from scratch and build everything,” says Kar. “We were on a journey, creating a new path, a new direction of research.”
The duo certainly knew about alloys, but they never thought of adding oxygen to the combination. “Well, we didn’t choose oxygen,” smiled Kar. “Oxygen chose us.” Kar and Sridhar were avoiding oxygen, as to not contaminate the material they were trying to develop. However, it became a ‘Eureka!’ moment when they realised that oxygen cannot be ignored in this mix. Once they went forward with the idea, oxygen turned out to be acting and reacting in a way that these physicists never imagined.
“It was as if the oxygen was controlling the geometric structure,” says Sridhar.
The name 2D-BNCO was given to this new material, indicating the two-dimensional nature and the four elements of the material. Kar and Sridhar are now analysing the ways they can characterise and manufacture it, so as to make sure that not only is it reproducible, but also scalable. It is, according to Kar, quite a complicated process. They have, as a result, researchers from the US, Mexico, and India helping them in this 2D-BNCO experiment as well.
“There is still a long way to go but there are clear indications that we can tune the electrical properties of these materials,” says Sridhar. “And if we find the right combination, we will very likely get to that point where we reach the thermal sensitivity that DARPA was initially looking for as well as many as-yet unforeseen applications.”
Pranjali Wakde
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