Crystalline boron nitride nanosheets by sonication-assisted hydrothermal exfoliation

A simple method to prepare two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) scalably is essential for practical applications. Despite intense research in this area, high-yield production of two-dimensional h-BN with large size and high crystallinity is still a key challenge. In the present work, we propose a simple exfoliation process for boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) with high crystallinity by sonication-assisted hydrothermal method, via the synergistic effect of the high pressure, and cavitation of the sonication. Compared with the method only by sonication, the sonication-assisted hydrothermal method can get the fewer-layer BNNSs with high crystallinity. Meanwhile, it can reach higher yield of nearly 1.68%, as the hydrothermal method with the yield of only 0.12%. The simple sonication-assisted hydrothermal method has potential applications in exfoliating other layered materials, thus opening new ways to produce other layered materials in high yield and high crystallinity.