During the past several decades, newly discovered borates have been in the research spotlight because of the large number of complex molecular and 1-, 2- and 3- dimensional structures found in no other mixed metal oxides. Consequently, more than 3900 born-containing crystal structures, including borate minerals and synthetic borates, have been synthesized and solved as the vital components of chemistry and material sciences community till now. It follows then that borates with unique structures can be applied as advanced functional materials, such as optical materials, flame retardants, and detergents, etc. Thousands of borates are characterized by the great variety in their crystal structures, which is caused by the varied linkage in fundamental building blocks. From the performance perspective, one of the most exciting aspects of borates is their potential to be applied as novel optical materials, and thus borates can be regarded as a rich source of UV and deep-UV nonlinear optical, birefringent, and self-frequency-doubling laser materials.
Recently, Prof. Shilie Pan (Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics & Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science) and Prof. Kenneth R. Poeppelmeier (Northwestern University) were invited to write a Review article for discussing the structural chemistry of borates and borate-based optical materials. The review was published in Chemical Review with title of “Borates: A Rich Source for Optical Materials” (Chem. Rev. 2021,3, 1130-1202).
This review provides a survey of all the reported anhydrous borates and an analysis of their complex structural chemistry. State-of-the-art progress related to technological advances in borate-based nonlinear optical, birefringent, and self-frequency-doubling materials is surveyed, with special emphasis on the relationships between structural architectures and optical properties. More importantly, this review serves both as a scientific introduction for graduates and post-doctoral researchers to the chemical richness of solid-state borates and as a comprehensive reference for researchers interested in borate-based optical materials.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00796
