Breakthroughs in White Graphene

 

A new study about hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) from the university of Surrey was published in the journal Small.

Recently, scientists have shown interesting research about nano porous hBN. They are considering its potential environmental applications like filtering pollution, hydrogen storage, and even as an electrochemical catalyst for fuel cells. 

Dr Marco Sacchi is An associate professor at Surrey’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. He is Lead author of the study. He reports, “ Our research should light on the atomic scale processes that govern the formation of this remarkable material and its nano structures. By understanding these mechanisms, we can engineer materials with unprecedented precision, optimizing their properties for a host of revolutionary technologies.”

Dr Sacchi worked with Austria’s Graz University of Technology. The team used functional theory and microkinetic modeling. This showed the growth of hBN. (It is created from borazine precursors.)

Scientists studied  the polymerization, the dehydrogenation, decomposition and diffusion of white graphene. This technique allowed scientist to create an atomic scale model where the material can be grown at any temperature.

Theoretical simulations are similar to the observations by the Graz group. The team feels that high-quality production of hBN is a possibility for the future. 

Dr Anton Tamgol is lead researcher on the project at TUGraz. He summarizes, “ Previous studies have neither considered all these intermediates nor such a large parameter space (Temperature and particle density). We believe that it will be useful to guide chemical vapor disposition growth of hBN on other metallic substrates,  as well as the synthesis of nanoporous or functionalized  structures.”