Snub boron nanostructures: Chiral fullerenes, nanotubes and planar sheet

► A novel 60 n2 chiral icosahedral boron fullerene family is designed from a new snub boron sheet. ► Density functional theory calculations on the stabilities of these boron nanostructures have been performed. ► These show that they are energetically competitive with the current models of boron nanostructures.