First synthesis of 2D materials by hypergolic reactions and evaluation of their dispersions for ink formulation: hexagonal boron nitride and fluorinated carbon nanosheets

Abstract Hypergolic reactions have emerged as a new synthetic approach enabling the rapid production of a diverse set of materials at ambient conditions. While hypergolic reactions bear several similarities to the well-established flame spray pyrolysis (FSP), the former has only recently been demonstrated as a viable approach to materials synthesis. Here we demonstrate a new pathway to 2D materials using hypergolic reactions and expand the gallery of nanomaterials synthesized hypergolically. More specifically, we demonstrate that ammonia borane complex, NH3BH3, or 4-fluoroaniline can react hypergolically with fuming nitric acid to form hexagonal boron nitride/fluorinated carbon nanosheets, respectively. Structural and chemical features were confirmed with x-Ray diffraction, infrared, Raman, XPS spectroscopies and N2 porosimetry measurements. Electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) along with atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to characterize the morphology of the materials. Finally, we applied Hansen affinity parameters to quantify the surface/interfacial properties using their dispersibility in solvents. Of the solvents tested, ethylene glycol and ethanol exhibited the most stable dispersions of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). With respect to fluorinated carbon (FC) nanosheets, the suitable solvents for high stability dispersions were dimethylsulfoxide and 2-propanol. The dispersibility was quantified in terms of Hansen affinity parameters (δd, δp,δh) = (16.6, 8.2, 21.3) and (17.4, 10.1, 14.5) MPa1/2 for h-BN and FC, respectively.