page_title: Nanomesh
hierarchical_section_title: Nanomesh
caption_attribution_description: 3D Nanomesh
context_page_description: The nanomesh is an inorganic nanostructured two-dimensional material, similar to graphene. It was discovered in 2003 at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
  .
  It consists of a single layer of boron and nitrogen atoms, which forms by self-assembly into a highly regular mesh after high-temperature exposure of a clean rhodium or ruthenium surface to borazine under ultra-high vacuum.
  The nanomesh looks like an assembly of hexagonal pores at the nanometer scale. The distance between two pore centers is only 3.2 nm, whereas each pore has a diameter of about 2 nm and is 0.05 nm deep. The lowest regions bind strongly to the underlying metal, while the wires are only bound to the surface through strong cohesive forces within the layer itself.
  The boron nitride nanomesh is not only stable under vacuum, air and some liquids, but also up to temperatures of 796ᵒC. In addition it shows the extraordinary ability to trap molecules and metallic clusters, which have similar sizes to the nanomesh pores, forming a well-ordered array.
context_section_description: The nanomesh is an inorganic nanostructured two-dimensional material, similar to graphene. It was discovered in 2003 at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
  .
  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 or ruthenium surface to borazine under ultra-high vacuum.
  The nanomesh looks like an assembly of hexagonal pores (see right image) at the nanometer (nm) scale. The distance between two pore centers is only 3.2 nm, whereas each pore has a diameter of about 2 nm and is 0.05 nm deep. The lowest regions bind strongly to the underlying metal, while the wires (highest regions) are only bound to the surface through strong cohesive forces within the layer itself.
  The boron nitride nanomesh is not only stable under vacuum, air  and some liquids, but also up to temperatures of 796ᵒC (1070 K). In addition it shows the extraordinary ability to trap molecules and metallic clusters, which have similar sizes to the nanomesh pores, forming a well-ordered array. These characteristics promise interesting applications of the nanomesh in areas like nanocatalysis, surface functionalisation, spintronics, quantum computing and data storage media like hard drives.
caption: 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.
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