Post-transition metal traditionally used for tools.' In modern use, the term 'semimetal' sometimes refers, loosely or explicitly, to metals with incomplete metallic character in crystalline structure, electrical conductivity or electronic structure. Examples include gallium, ytterbium, bismuth, mercury and neptunium. Metalloids, which are in-between elements that are neither metals nor nonmetals, are also sometimes instead called semimetals. The elements commonly recognised as metalloids are boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony and tellurium. In old chemistry, before the publication in 1789 of Lavoisier's 'revolutionary' "Elementary Treatise on Chemistry", a semimetal was a metallic element with 'very imperfect ductility and malleability' such as zinc, mercury or
Boron arsenide Boron arsenide Boron arsenide is a chemical compound involving boron and arsenic, usually with a chemical formula BAs. Other boron arsenide compounds are known, such as the subarsenide BAs. Chemical synthesis of cubic BAs is very challenging and its single crystal forms usually have defects. BAs is a cubic (sphalerite) semiconductor in the III-V family with a lattice constant of 0.4777 nm and an indirect band gap of approximately 1.86 eV. It can be alloyed with gallium arsenide to produce ternary and quaternary semiconductors. Cubic BAs is reported to decompose to the subarsenide BAs at temperatures above 920 °C. Boron