Boron nitride colloidal solutions, ultralight aerogels and freestanding membranes through one-step exfoliation and functionalization.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26611437.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms9849 and PMC identifier 4674780.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Manufacturing of aerogels and membranes from hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is much more difficult than from graphene or graphene oxides because of the poor dispersibility of h-BN in water, which limits its exfoliation and preparation of colloidal solutions. Here, a simple, one-step mechano-chemical process to exfoliate and functionalize h-BN into highly water-dispersible, few-layer h-BN containing amino groups is presented. The colloidal solutions of few-layer h-BN can have unprecedentedly high concentrations, up to 30 mg ml(-1), and are stable for up to several months. They can be used to produce ultralight aerogels with a density of 1.4 mg cm(-3), which is ∼1,500 times less than bulk h-BN, and freestanding membranes simply by cryodrying and filtration, respectively. The material shows strong blue light emission under ultraviolet excitation, in both dispersed and dry state.