Nanosheet-Structured Boron Nitride Spheres with a Versatile Adsorption Capacity for Water Cleaning

Abstract

Here, we report the synthesis of nanosheet-structured boron nitride spheres (NSBNSs) by a catalyzing thermal evaporation method from solid B powders. The NSBNSs consist of radially oriented ultrathin nanosheets with the sheet edges oriented on the surface. Formation of this unique structure occurs only at a certain reaction temperature. The diameter from 4 μm to 700 nm and the nanosheet thickness from 9.1 to 3.1 nm of the NSBNSs can be well-controlled by appropriately changing the mass ratio of boron powders and catalyst. The NSBNSs possess versatile adsorption capacity, exhibiting excellent adsorption performance for oil, dyes, and heavy metal ions from water. The oil uptake reaches 7.8 times its own weight. The adsorption capacities for malachite green and methylene blue are 324 and 233 mg/g, while those for Cu(2+), Pb(2+), and Cd(2+) are 678.7, 536.7, and 107.0 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption capacities of the NSBNSs for Cu(2+) and Pb(2+) are higher or much higher than those of the adsorbents reported previously. These results demonstrate the great potential of NSBNSs for water treatment and cleaning.

Monolithic supermacroporous hydrogel prepared from high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) for fast removal of Cu 2+ and Pb 2+

“…Under the same conditions, the adsorbents with high specific surface area show fast adsorption kinetics and high adsorption capacity, because the functional groups attached onto the adsorbents can be fully exposed that is beneficial for easy access of an adsorbate [9]. Therefore, the adsorbents are usually prepared as nanoparticles or porous structures displaying outstanding adsorption performances due to high surface area and abundant active sites, [10][11][12]. However, the nanomaterials have the tendency to aggregate, leading to decrease in active surface area and in this case, partial adsorption sites will be lost [13].…”

Platinum Nanoparticle Loading of Boron Nitride Aerogel and Its Use as a Novel Material for Low‐Power Catalytic Gas Sensing

“…To exploit the high surface area of these nanomaterials in a 3D geometry, there have been efforts to synthesize low density, high surface area 3D structures of BN comprised of lower dimensional nanomaterials. [11][12][13][14] These high surface area 3D BN materials have been proposed for hydrogen storage, [15][16][17][18] hydrocarbon uptake, [19][20][21] and water purifi cation [ 17,22 ] due to the enhanced physisorption properties of BN compared to carbon. [ 23 ] In addition to these applications, high surface area BN is an interesting candidate as a support material for optically or catalytically active nanoparticles, due to its wide band gap and chemical inertness.…”

Adsorption of Pb(II) ions from aqueous solution using lignin from Hagenia abyssinica

“…A lot of research works have been conducted on different types of adsorbents, such as those of mineral, organic or biological origin, magnetic nanoparticles [26,27], nanosheet-structured materials [28], zeolites [29], industrial by-products [30], agricultural wastes [31,31], biomass [33] and lignin and lignocellulose materials [8,34,35]. However, wastewater treatment technologies are still requiring new environmentally friendly, scalable, cheap and effective materials.…”