Stable colloidal boron nitride nanosheet dispersion and its potential application in catalysis

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 1; no. 39; pp. 12192 - 12197
• Main Authors: Huang, Caijin, Chen, Cheng, Ye, Xinxin, Ye, Weiqing, Hu, Jinli, Xu, Chao, Qiu, Xiaoqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2013
• Subjects: boron nitride; catalytic activity; ethylene glycol; gold; nanogold; nanoparticles; nanosheets; nanosilver; p-nitrophenol; platinum; silver; solvents; sonication; surface tension
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/c3ta12231j

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanosheets, a promising layered material, have drawn more and more attention in recent years. In this study, a simple method has been developed to prepare stable colloidal h-BN nanosheet dispersion with high concentration in ethylene glycol based on the matching of the surface energies of h-BN and the surface tension of the solvent. It is found that bulk h-BN can be directly exfoliated and dispersed in ethylene glycol solvent with the assistance of sonication to form stable h-BN nanosheets with a few layers. Furthermore, the stable colloidal h-BN nanosheets have been demonstrated to be good carriers to support and disperse noble metal nanoparticles such as Ag, Au, and Pt with high catalytic activity for the reduction of p-nitrophenol. Our results suggest that stable colloidal h-BN dispersion with high concentration in ethylene glycol could open the way to a range of important applications of h-BN based materials.