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Published on: June 3, 2019
Growth of boron nitride nanotubes from magnesium diboride catalysts
Songfeng E1, Liling Wu2, Chaowei Li1
1Division of Advanced Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Nanodevices and Applications, Joint Key Laboratory of Functional Nanomaterials and Devices, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, China. ygyao2013@sinano.ac.cn and School of Nano Technology and Nano Bionics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Abstract:
The difficulty in synthesizing boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) in a conventional horizontal tube furnace by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) may be ascribed to the failure to identify suitable catalysts and nucleation particles. This report demonstrates that magnesium diboride (MgB2) can effectively catalyze the growth of BNNTs in such a tube furnace from various boron sources, including boron oxide (B2O3), boric acid (H3BO3), and a mixture of boron (B) and calcium oxide (CaO). This catalyst is more efficient than the possible magnesium oxide (MgO) or magnesium nitride (Mg3N2) catalysts. MgB2 efficiently catalyzes the formation of BNNTs by maintaining a liquid state and showing a dissolving capacity for B2O3 at the growth temperature, thus satisfying the criteria for the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanisms of one-dimensional nanomaterials. First-principles simulations demonstrate that B2O3 can be dissolved into the MgB2 nanoparticle. We believe that the strong catalytic behavior of MgB2 can be attributed to its robust nucleation for BNNTs and dissolubility for B2O3.
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