Simple Synthesis of Two-Dimensional Micro/Mesoporous Boron Nitride

Micro/mesoporous boron nitride (BN) nanosheets were synthesized through a simple one-pot procedure using cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and ammonia borane (AB) as a structure-directing agent and a BN precursor, respectively. The pyrolysis of the CTAB/AB hybrid under an ammonia atmosphere at 1150 degrees C produced a white BN powder. We investigated the effect of the CTAB/AB weight ratio on the morphology and physical properties of the prepared powders. The obtained products were characterized by using X-ray diffraction techniques, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and N-2-sorption analysis. We found that increasing the weight ratio of CTAB/AB changed the morphology of the synthesized materials from densely packed porous structures to two-dimentional micro/mesoporous BN powders. The high surface area of 1401 cm(2)g(-1) and pore volume of 1.56 cm(3)g(-1) and micropore volume of 0.41 cm(3)g(-1) were obtained for a CTAB/AB weight ratio of 10:1. Hydrogen sorption analysis revealed that the obtained powder has a hydrogen-adsorption capacity of approximately 1 wt.-% at 77 K and 100 kPa.