Tuning the Chemical Hardness of Boron Nitride Nanosheets by Doping Carbon for Enhanced Adsorption Capacity

Abstract

The chemical hardness of adsorbents is an important physicochemical property in the process of adsorption based on the hard and soft acids and bases (HSAB) theory. Tuning chemical hardness of adsorbents modulated by their concomitants is a promising approach to enhance the adsorptive capacity in principle. In the present work, we report an efficient strategy that the adsorption capacity for aromatic sulfocompounds can be enhanced by tuning the chemical hardness. This strategy is first theoretically explored by introducing C element into the network of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) based on a series of model materials (model_ x C, x = 1–5). Computational results show that the chemical hardness is reduced after gradually C-doping, which may lead to an enhancement of adsorption capacity according to the HSAB theory. Then, a series of C-doped h-BN materials (BCN- x , x = 10–50) were controlled synthesized. All of the as-prepared materials show better adsorption capacities (e.g., 27.43 mg g –1 for BCN-50) than pure h-BN. Experiment results show that the adsorption capacity correlates well with the C content in the BCN- x , which is consistent with the results predicted by theoretical calculation. This strategy may be helpful to rationally design highly efficient adsorbents in separation engineering and may be expanded to similar two-dimensional materials, where the π–π interaction is the dominant driven force.

Application of Chemically Exfoliated Boron Nitride Nanosheets Doped with Co to Remove Organic Pollutants Rapidly from Textile Water

“…It is worth mentioning that bulk BN induces a bandgap of 5.2-5.4 eV while a monolayer exposes a bandgap of~6.07 eV which coincides well with theoretical calculations (e.g., 6.0 eV). In the case of bi/multilayers, the bandgap value ranges from 5.56 to 5.92 eV [43]. Being consistent with a broad bandgap in Fig.…”

“…Two core peaks were identified at 808 and 1370 cm −1 which are thought to be associated with B-N-B (bending vibrations) and B-N (stretching vibration). The latter peak is associated with bending vibration A 2u mode (out-plane) while the former peak coincides well with stretching vibration E 1u mode (in-plane) [42,43]. Furthermore, peaks at 1020, 1160, and 1672 cm −1 were consistent with C-O, B-N-O, and C=O bond, respectively [44].…”

Bactericidal behavior of chemically exfoliated boron nitride nanosheets doped with zirconium

“…Observed spectra exhibited two core peaks that correspond to h-BN at 740 as well as at 1355 cm −1 . Primary peak is attributed to B-N-B bending vibration (A 2u -out of plane), while secondary peak is ascribed to B-N stretching vibration (E 1u -in plane) (Li et al 2017;Ding et al 2018). Peaks recorded at 1160 and 1560 cm −1 correspond to C=O and B-N-O, respectively.…”

Laser‐Directed Assembly of Nanorods of 2D Materials

“…An absorption measurement of the unexposed BN solution presents a characteristic hexagonal BN peak at 201 nm. After the femtosecond laser treatment, the h‐BN absorption peak completely disappears and a new broad peak appears at ≈330 nm, which is attributable to the formation of carbon‐doped BN …”