Super-stretchable borophene and its stability under straining

Abstract: Recent success in synthesizing two-dimensional borophene on silver substrate attracts strong interest in exploring its possible extraordinary physical properties. By using the density functional theory calculations, we show that borophene is highly stretchable along the transverse direction. The strain-to-failure in the transverse direction is nearly twice as that along the longitudinal direction. The straining induced flattening and subsequent stretch of the flat borophene are accounted for the large strain-to-failure for tension in the transverse direction. The mechanical properties in the other two directions exhibit strong anisotropy. Phonon dispersions of the strained borophene monolayers suggest that negative frequencies are presented, which indicates the instability of free-standing borophene even under high tensile stress.