Large Scale Thermal Exfoliation and Functionalization of Boron Nitride

A scalable method to produce exfoliated and functionalized boron nitride sheets is described. The procedure involves the high temperature treatment of commercially obtained hexagonal boron nitride followed by hydrolysis. A mechanism of formation is proposed and analysis by XRD, FTIR, FESEM, TEM, AFM, XPS, TGA, and Raman spectroscopy reveals exfoliated boron nitride sheets functionalized by hydroxyl groups that can be further reacted with...