h-BN-TiO₂Nanocomposite for Photocatalytic Applications

Abstract

h-BN-TiO2nanocomposites were synthesized by the thermal hydrolysis of titanium peroxo-complexes in the presence of exfoliated h-BN. The bulk h-BN was prepared by annealing mixture of boric acid and urea, and high intensity ultrasound was used for its exfoliation. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, electron spin resonance (ESR), high resolution electron microscopy, BET surface area, and BJH porosity measurement. The UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was employed to estimate band-gap energies. The photoinduced charge on the surface of h-BN-TiO2nanocomposites was visualized using electric force microscopy (EFM). The photocatalytic activity was determined by azo dyes Orange II and Reactive Black 5 photobleaching. The highest rate constantk= 0.0762 min−1and 0.0164 min−1, under UV and visible light irradiation, respectively, showed sample denoted TiP050BN with moderate concentration of h-BN.

Enhanced photocatalytic performance of novel electrospun BN/TiO2 composite nanofibers

“…The increasing of the surface area with the increasing of BN sheets amount is clearly seen from Table 2. It is commonly accepted that TiO2 with a large surface area will have superior photocatalyst activity, because a larger surface area offers more active adsorption sites 36 . 6 .…”

“…Thus, it is expected to get lower electron-hole recombination rate in BN doped TiO2 nanostructures. On the basis of the above mentioned BN-TiO2 interaction the PL intensity in the BN doped TiO2 nanostructures should decrease 47,36 . However, in our case, the enhancement of the TiO2 nanofibers PL was observed when increasing of the doping level of BN.…”

Visible Light-Responsive Photocatalytic Activity of Boron Nitride Incorporated Composites

“…The as-synthesized BN nanostructures were always negatively charged intrinsically (Peng et al, 2013 ), which makes them the good h + carrier acceptor, and could be used to improve the h + /e − carrier separation in photocatalysis. As reported in literatures (Chen et al, 2014 ; Wang J. et al, 2015 ; Štengl et al, 2016 ; Liu et al, 2017 ; Li et al, 2018 ; Nasr et al, 2018 ), the combination of BN in the photocatalysts could effectively enhance the photocatalytic activities via improving the visible light absorption and reducing the recombination rate of hole/electron carriers. Therefore, the BN incorporated nanocomposite could be an alternative photocatalyst with enhanced visible light-responsive photocatalytic activities.…”

Polymer Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic Degradation and Photoinduced Utilizations of Azo-Dyes

“…Stengl et al synthesized hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)-TiO 2 nanocomposites by thermal hydrolysis of titanium peroxo-complexes in the presence of exfoliated h-BN. The highest rate constants for photocatalytic removal of orange II and reactive black 5 were k = 0.0762 min −1 and 0.0164 min −1 under UV and visible light irradiation, respectively [26]. Sharma et al obtained surfactant-aided TiO 2 -MgO nanocomposite (Ti-M-S) by sol-gel process with the aid of sodium dodecyl sulfate as structure-directing anionic surfactant.…”