Yale scientists make a borophene breakthrough
news.yale.edu
news.yale.edu
"Borophene is structurally similar to graphene, with a hexagonal network made of boron (instead of carbon) atoms on each of the six vertices defining the hexagon," said Bozovic. "However, borophene is different in that it periodically has an extra boron atom in the center of the hexagon. The crystal structure tends to be theoretically stable when about four out of every five center positions are occupied and one is vacant."
[There are some diagrams that might help here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borophene)]
Then later:
Because there are several possible distributions of vacancies on the surface, various crystal structures of borophene can emerge. This study also showed how the structure of borophene can be modified by changing the substrate and, in some cases, the temperature or deposition rate.
https://phys.org/news/2018-12-borophene-advances-d-materials...
Likely short-term studies include superconductivity:
Bozovic is particularly excited to test whether borophene can be made superconducting. Some theorists have speculated that its unusual electronic structure may even open a path to lossless transmission of electricity at room temperature, as opposed to the ultracold temperatures usually required for superconductivity.
Graphene has been a hot topic in superconductivity recently:
Specifically, superconducting electromagnets. Users include particle accelerators, highest end chromatography, MRI and magnetic levitation.
Try winding some copper around a nail and connecting the wires to a battery. You'll be able to pick up paperclips.
Superconductivity allows current levels to get high enough to generate massive magnetic fields so I don't think there's a difference.
but then I'm no particle physisict
Instead of just saying superconductivity twice, they are trying to be concise by shoehorning the application of superconductivity into the same sentence.