One-Step Exfoliation and Fluorination of Boron Nitride Nanosheets and a Study of Their Magnetic Properties†
This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2012CB932302), NSFC (Contract No. 91221101, 51321091), and IIFSDU (2012JC007).
Graphical Abstract
Wafer-thin and mint condition: Fluorinated hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (F-BNNSs) can be prepared by using ammonium fluoride to exfoliate and fluorinate hexagonal boron nitride. The as-prepared products can exhibit ferromagnetic characteristics at room temperature, which would have good potential applications in spintronic devices.
Abstract
A novel, simple, and efficient method for the preparation of the fluorinated hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (F-BNNSs) and the corresponding magnetic properties is presented. A one-step route is used to exfoliate and fluorinate the BNNSs by ammonium fluoride (NH4F) from hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) powder. Through related instrument characterizations and theoretical calculations, we confirm that large-area and few-layer F-BNNSs were successfully produced by this method, which can be attributed to a fluorination-assisted exfoliation mechanism from the bulk h-BN in NH4F. More intriguingly, we initially verified that the as-prepared F-BNNSs exhibit ferromagnetic characteristics, which would have good potential applications in spintronic devices.
