Porous hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets from g-C3N4 templates with a high specific surface area for CO2 adsorption

Hexagonal boron nitride ( h -BN) has been widely applied to different fields owing to its unique structural feature. Porous h -BN materials are promising CO 2 adsorbents by virtue of the large specific surface area and intrinsic polarity. Here, porous few-layered h -BN nanosheets , which were synthesized using bulk graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) as a template, presented high crystallinity with a thickness of ~5.5 nm. It exhibited unique high porosity with a specific surface area of 212.620 m 2  g −1 . Simultaneously, the material displayed excellent CO 2 adsorption properties endowed to its porous nature and its optimal CO 2 adsorption capacity could be 19.26 cm 3  g −1  at 25 °C under atmospheric pressure. Based on thermodynamic calculations, the formation mechanism of porous few-layered 2D h -BN nanosheets with g-C 3 N 4 as sacrificial templates was proposed.