Synthesis of Thermally Stable h-BN-CNT Hetero-Structures via Microwave Heating of Ethylene under Nickel, Iron, and Silver Catalysts

Abstract

Initially, three samples of carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were synthesized from neem tree material. Afterward, these samples were coated with hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) to form h-BN and CNT composite (h-BN-CNT). The essence of using h-BN (being a perfect insulator) with armchair SWCNT (being a conductor) is to create an interface between an insulator and conductor. The samples were treated under three different transition metal nanoparticles; silver, iron, and nickel. Thermogravimetric (TGA) analysis reveals that h-BN/CNT is thermally more stable with silver than iron and nickel nanoparticles. TGA profile showed resistance to mass loss at the beginning due to the higher thermal resistivity by the impurity compounds. The DFT calculation, generalized gradient approximation (GGA), and Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE) analysis found engineered bandgap energy of 3.4 eV for the synthesized h-BN-CNT heterostructure. Because of its unique structural and electronic properties such as tunable bandgaps, the h-BN-CNT heterostructure may open new ways for manipulating excitons in the CNTs, and thus can be explored to develop various new electronic devices.

Computational Studies of the Excitonic and Optical Properties of Armchair SWCNT and SWBNNT for Optoelectronics Applications

“…By considering the common features found in CNTs and BNNTs, scientists have thought of combining these two novel materials in order to come up with bridged applications that can be put into next-generation technology and applications. For example, experimental studies were conducted on the synthesis of thermally stable CNT and BNNT hetero materials [11], and the results showed promising applications of CNT and BNNT in light emitting diodes (LED). Similarly, another computational approach was performed for the electronic properties of (5, 5) SWCBNNT nanostructures, which predict the excellent ability of these materials to serve as gas sensors [12].…”

First-Principle Studies of the Structural, Electronic, and Optical Properties of Double-Walled Carbon Boron Nitride Nanostructures Heterosystem under Various Interwall Distances

“…Te lowest refractions are recorded in both systems; also, the refraction becomes generally constant from 15 eV, as such the CBNNT demonstrates low refraction generally in the visible range. Furthermore, the refractive index decreases with the increase in incident photon energy after 5 eV; here, the phase velocity of the passing light is higher than the speed of light in a vacuum; this behavior is called normal dispersion [30]. Tis provides the photoluminescence phenomenon in CBNNT.…”

The Exchange-Correlation Effects on the Electronic Bands of Hybrid Armchair Single-Walled Carbon Boron Nitride Nanostructure

“…Successful creation of CBNNT hybrid nanotubes can only be achieved when we use a nanotube of the same structural properties, such as crystallographic nature (hexagonal structure), anisotropy, piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity, and biocompatibility. A successful attempt was made to create a band gap in CNT with the optimized structure of bilayered tin selenide (SnSe) [14] by using the Quantum ESPRESSO package. Tin selenide (SnSe) has a hexagonal honeycomb structure similar to graphene with a separation of 1.56 Å between Sn and Se atoms [14][15][16].…”

“…A successful attempt was made to create a band gap in CNT with the optimized structure of bilayered tin selenide (SnSe) [14] by using the Quantum ESPRESSO package. Tin selenide (SnSe) has a hexagonal honeycomb structure similar to graphene with a separation of 1.56 Å between Sn and Se atoms [14][15][16]. The result was the creation of a SnSe-CNT semiconductor with a narrow bandgap of 2.56 eV.…”