One-step synthesis of boron nitride carbon nanosheets containing zinc oxide for catalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction and degradation of organic dyes

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 5; no. 85; pp. 69394 - 69399
• Main Authors: Yamuna, A., Mandalam, Aditya, Karthigaiselvi, A., Balasubramanian, M., Thiruparasakthi, B., Ravichandran, Subbiah, Mayavan, Sundar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2015
• Subjects: Bonding; Boron nitride; Carbon; Dyes; Nanostructure; Reduction; Zinc; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/C5RA12082A

Boron nitride carbon nanosheets containing zinc oxide (ZnO/h-BNC) with a hexagonal B–N bond structure were prepared using a scalable, one-step process involving the thermal treatment of glycine, zinc nitrate, graphene oxide and boron oxide. The as-prepared ZnO/h-BNC hybrids were active for both the electrocatalytic reduction of oxygen under alkaline conditions and the photocatalytic oxidation of methyl orange dye. The ZnO/h-BNC nanosheets showed a much improved onset potential and reduced current density compared with ZnO/BCN sheets with a dominant CN bond configuration for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The BNC enriched with h-BN showed an excellent ORR performance, whereas the CN dominant BCN showed relatively less activity for the ORR, suggesting an intrinsic difference in properties of the BCN-based materials with different bond configurations. The Zn species located inside the h-BNC matrix acted as photocatalytically active centres for the degradation of methyl orange dye under UV irradiation.