Activated boron nitride as an effective adsorbent for metal ions and organic pollutants

Li, Jie; Xiao, Xuechun; Xu, Xuewen; Lin, Jianming; Huang, Yang; Xue, Yanming; Jin, Peng; Zou, Jin; Tang, Chengchun

doi:10.1038/srep03208

Cited by 237 publications

(172 citation statements)

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“…Consequently, while idealised basal surfaces should contain hexagons composed of boron and nitrogen alone, it is likely that the edges of hBN sheets will contain species such as hydroxyl groups. Indeed, examination of the as-supplied hBN power used here by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed the presence of weak absorption bands centred at 3131 and 3420 cm -1 , which can be associated the stretching of O-H and N-H bonds, as reported elsewhere [27][28][29][30][31]. However, if the true structure were to differ markedly from the ideal, then the presence of many polar surface groups would be expected to lead to hydrogen bonds with any labile polar species present in the system, most notably, water.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced dielectric properties of polyethylene/hexagonal boron nitride nanocomposites

et al. 2017

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A range of nanocomposites based on a polyethylene polymer and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) filler have been explored in this study. The dielectric properties of the nanocomposites, which consisted of 2, 5, 10, 20 and 30 wt% of hBN, have been compared to the dielectric properties of the unfilled polyethylene blend. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the hBN was uniformly distributed in the polyethylene matrix, although large amounts of agglomerates were present in the nanocomposites containing more than 10 wt% of hBN. The incorporation of hBN into polyethylene resulted in a highly disordered morphology in comparison with the unfilled polyethylene, in which this effect was more pronounced with increasing hBN content. This is consistent with the increasing crystallisation temperature as the hBN content increases, as shown by differential scanning calorimetry, where the hBN acted as a highly effective nucleating due to the strong interactions between the polyethylene and the hBN. This strong interaction is again reflected in the thermal decomposition temperature which similarly increases with increasing hBN content. The study demonstrates the remarkable electrical properties of the prepared nanocomposites, where the breakdown strength monotonically increased as a function of hBN content, even with a very high 30 wt% of hBN. The improvement in electrical properties, even at high hBN concentrations, is contradictory to the reported results in the literature and is mainly attributed to the hydrophobic surface of the hBN particles.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced dielectric properties of polyethylene/hexagonal boron nitride nanocomposites

et al. 2017

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“…Indeed, surface/interface engineering with metal ions are encouraged since BCN-based materials feature the "lop-sided" densities characteristic of ionic B-N bonding, and the polyelectronic nitride can transfer more electron density to metal ions [36,37]. They are thus effective for the adsorption of metal ions, chemically, as highlighted here by surface engineering via cobalt ions (Scheme 1).…”

Section: Science China Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photocatalytic water oxidation by layered Co/h-BCN hybrids

et al. 2015

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The search for new materials has progressed from metal-based photocatalysts to elemental semiconductors (C, Si, P, S, B) [11][12][13][14][15] and recently to metal-free binary materials and polymers, such as carbon nitride [16], boron carbide [17] and conjugated semiconductors [18][19][20]. These researches indicate that photon absorbing materials can be constituted by using lightweight elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and boron, opening up new opportunities for the selection of innovative and intriguing materials for artificial photosynthesis. It is of particular interest that some of these elements themselves (graphene [21], silicone [22]) or their combinations (h-BN, g-C 3 N 4 ) [23] can form layered structures with reduced thickness comparable to charge-diffusion distance, and thus if a semiconducting electronic structure was imparted in these materials, the fast separation of light-induced charge carrier would significantly benefit surface photoredox process that relied on the excitation and separation of electron-hole pairs and their subsequent participation in surface chemical reactions [24][25][26]. An interesting case of such a layered material is ternary h-BCN with tuneable ba nd gap energies between graphene (zero bandgap) and h-BN (bandgap = 5.6 eV) [27], which have the same atomic structure and share many similar properties. The hybridized phases of the two two-dimensional (2D) materials by atomic mixture of B, N, and C with broad composition ranges to create various layered semiconducting structures would produce new material functions complementary to graphene and h-BN, enabling a wide variety of electronic structures, applications and properties [28][29][30]. Such an emerging family of chemically inert and mechanically strong 2D materials practically allows the bandgap-engineered applications in heterogeneous photocatalysis by creating a medium-gap ternary semiconductor, in which the band gap, redox energy levels, p/n-type properties and surface acid-base chemistry can in principle be modulated by rational design and synthesis [31,32].A hexagonal boron carbon nitride (h-BCN) semiconductor was applied to intercalate cobalt ions to catalyze oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with light illumination, without using noble metals. The h-BCN with high specific surface area showed a strong chemical affinity towards metal ions due to the "lop-sided" densities characteristic of ionic B-N bonding, enabling the creation of metal/h-BCN hybrid layered structures with unique properties. As exemplified here by Co/h-BCN for water oxidation catalysis, after intercalating cobalt ions in the h-BCN host, the photocatalytic activity of the resultant layered hybrid is optimized due to their synergic catalysis that promotes charge separation and lowers reaction barriers. This finding promises a new nobel-metal-free nanocompsite using cost-acceptable and earth-abundant sust ances for photocatalytic OER, and enables the facile design of duel catalytic cascades by merging transition metal catalysis with h-BCN (photo)catalys...

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“…Some examples of templates employed include mesoporous silica, carbonaceous materials and zeolites [25][26][27]. Various organic compounds have also been mixed with boron and nitrogen precursors and used as structure-directing agents to produce porous BN, such as for instance cetyl-trimethylammonium bromide [28], or the triblock copolymer (P123) [12].…”

Section: A C C E P T E D Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have reported the use of porous BN for gas phase and liquid phase adsorption. The focus has mostly been on CO 2 capture [4][5][6], H 2 storage [7][8][9][10], pollutants removal from air [11,12], water pollutants removal [7,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] and oil adsorption [15,21,22]. For instance, recent work by Nag et al [5] reported the synthesis of boron nitride with a CO 2 adsorption capacity of up to 32 wt.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunable porous boron nitride: Investigating its formation and its application for gas adsorption

Marchesini

Regoutz

Payne

et al. 2017

Microporous and Mesoporous Materials

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Boron nitride (BN) has applications in a number of areas: it can be used as lubricant, as insulating thermoconductive filler or UV-light emitter. BN can also capture large amounts of hydrocarbons and gaseous molecules, provided that it exhibits a porous structure. This porous structure also enables its application as a drug-delivery nanocarrier. Little if anything is known on controlling the porosity of BN, even though it has tremendous implications in terms of adsorption performance and drug delivery properties. To address * Corresponding Author: Camille Petit, camille.petit@imperial.ac.uk M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 2 this aspect, we provide for the first time an in-depth investigation of the effects of the synthesis conditions on the formation of porous BN. The material was also tested for CO 2 capture. We found that the intermediate preparation is of paramount importance and can in fact be used to tune the porosity of BN. Owing to a combination of spectroscopic and thermal analyses, we attributed this phenomenon to the variation of the thermal decomposition pattern of the intermediates. The most microporous BN produced was able to capture CO 2 while not retaining N 2 . Overall, this study opens the route for the design of well-controlled porous BN structures to be applied as adsorbents and drug-delivery carriers.

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Activated boron nitride as an effective adsorbent for metal ions and organic pollutants

Cited by 237 publications

References 50 publications

Enhanced dielectric properties of polyethylene/hexagonal boron nitride nanocomposites

Enhanced dielectric properties of polyethylene/hexagonal boron nitride nanocomposites

Photocatalytic water oxidation by layered Co/h-BCN hybrids

Tunable porous boron nitride: Investigating its formation and its application for gas adsorption

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