Division of Chemistry & Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore.
Nanoscale. 2018 Apr 19;10(15):7298-7303. doi: 10.1039/c8nr00082d.
Boron nitride (h-BN), which is an isoelectronic analogue of graphite, has received immense attention due to its unique physical and chemical properties. Numerous methods have been developed to isolate few-layered h-BN nanosheets. These include chemical vapour deposition, solution-based exfoliation and ball-milling amongst others. The bipolar electrochemical method is one of the popular, scalable and water based exfoliation methods which has been applied to graphite, layered transition metal dichalcogenides and black phosphorus. This method was not applied to insulators as this has been assumed to be an impossible task. In this study, we report a solution-based, scalable and time efficient bipolar electrochemical method for the direct exfoliation of bulk insulator, layered h-BN into few-layered h-BN nanosheets based on bipolar electrochemistry. The electrochemical exfoliation of nonconductive materials, h-BN, opens the way to the application of this scalable method to the whole spectrum of non-conductive layered materials. This facile method offers an alternative platform for h-BN electrochemical exfoliation in wide-ranging fields encompassing electronics and biomedical science.
氮化硼（h-BN）是石墨的等电子体，具有独特的物理和化学性质，因此受到了广泛关注。已经开发出许多方法来分离出少层 h-BN 纳米片。这些方法包括化学气相沉积、基于溶液的剥离和球磨等。双极电化学方法是一种流行的、可扩展的和基于水的剥离方法，已应用于石墨、层状过渡金属二卤化物和黑磷。由于人们认为这是一项不可能完成的任务，因此该方法并未应用于绝缘体。在本研究中，我们报告了一种基于双极电化学的溶液法、可扩展和高效的直接剥离块状绝缘体、层状 h-BN 为少层 h-BN 纳米片的方法。基于双极电化学的非导体材料 h-BN 的电化学剥离为该可扩展方法应用于整个非导体层状材料开辟了道路。这种简单的方法为 h-BN 的电化学剥离在电子学和生物医学科学等广泛领域提供了一个替代平台。
