title: Boron nitride colloidal solutions, ultralight aerogels and freestanding membranes through one-step exfoliation and functionalization.
abstract: Manufacturing of aerogels and membranes from hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is much more difficult than from graphene or graphene oxides because of the poor dispersibility of h-BN in water, which limits its exfoliation and preparation of colloidal solutions. Here, a simple, one-step mechano-chemical process to exfoliate and functionalize h-BN into highly water-dispersible, few-layer h-BN containing amino groups is presented. The colloidal solutions of few-layer h-BN can have unprecedentedly high concentrations, up to 30 mg ml(-1), and are stable for up to several months. They can be used to produce ultralight aerogels with a density of 1.4 mg cm(-3), which is ∼1,500 times less than bulk h-BN, and freestanding membranes simply by cryodrying and filtration, respectively. The material shows strong blue light emission under ultraviolet excitation, in both dispersed and dry state.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, and Materials Science and Engineering Department, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.|Department of Chemistry, Missouri University of Science &Technology, 1870 Miner Circle, Rolla, Missouri 65409, USA.
authors.forename: Vadym N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Mochalin
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Si
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, and Materials Science and Engineering Department, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Yury
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gogotsi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen