Rice lab makes boron nitride in a flash

The process developed in the lab of Rice chemist James Tour exposes a precursor to rapid heating and cooling to produce two-dimensional materials. The lab’s latest development produced pure boron nitride and boron carbon nitride, compounds that have been difficult to create in bulk and nearly impossible to produce in easily soluble form.

The lab’s report in Advanced Materials details how flash Joule heating can be modified to prepare purified, microscopic flakes of boron nitride with varying degrees of carbon. 

According to Rice, experiments with the material showed boron nitride flakes can be used as part of an anticorrosive coating.

“Boron nitride is a highly sought 2D material,” Tour said in a statement “To be able to make it in bulk, and now with mixed amounts of carbon, makes it even more versatile.”

At the nanoscale, boron nitride comes in several forms, including a hexagonal configuration that looks like graphene but with alternating boron and nitrogen atoms instead of carbon. Boron nitride is soft and often used as a lubricant and as an additive to cosmetics. It is also found in ceramics and metal compounds to improve their ability to handle high heat.