Nanocomposites and nanomaterials

Synthesis and characterization of boron carbon nitride
Starukh H.1, 2, 3, Praus P.1, 2, Smetana B.2, Zla S.2
1 Center for Energy and Environmental Technologies, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, 17 Listopadu 15 Ostrava, Czech Republic
2 Faculty of Materials Science and Technology VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, 17 Listopadu 15, Ostrava, Czech Republic
3Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry of NAS of Ukraine, 17 General Naumov str
Kyiv, Ukraine
E-mail: halyna.starukh@vsb.cz

The new direction for the development of metal-free alternatives for high cost and a scarce metal catalyst is an application of carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, and graphitic carbon nitride as photocatalysts. Boron carbon nitrides (BCN) are new effective photocatalysts that derivate from hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) which is 2D nanomaterial structurally analogous to graphene. Along with the high degree of mechanical and thermal stability, massive surface area, lubricity, and high adsorption capacity, h-BN demonstrates the wide bandgap and high recombination of photoexcited charge carriers that imitate its application in photocatalysis. BCN nanomaterials allow us to keep full advantages of graphene and h-BN. However, investigation on the synthesis and photocatalytic performances of ternary BCN materials theoretically and experimentally are still in their infancy due to its difficulty in controlling their texture and bandgap structure. It is necessary to find also a simple process for the synthesis of ternary BCN materials.
In our work, the results on the synthesis and characterization of h-BN and BCN by pyrolysis of melamine and boric acid will be presented. The analysis of the released products of pyrolysis and the residual substances allowed us to deduce the structure evolution mechanism of transformation from the supramolecular complex of melamine with boric acid to BN and BCN. The main stages of this transformation will be described and confirmed with thermal, XRD, FTIR, and elemental analysis.

This work was supported by the Doctoral grant competition VŠB TU-Ostrava, reg. no. CZ.02.2.69/0.0./0.0/19_073/0016945 within the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education, under project DGS/TEAM/2020-003" Synthesis of boron carbon nitride, its characterization and application for photocatalytic decomposition of pharmaceuticals in aqueous solutions ".