High-yield synthesis of boron nitride nanoribbons via longitudinal splitting of boron nitride nanotubes by potassium vapor.

Boron nitride nanoribbons (BNNRs) are theorized to have interesting electronic and magnetic properties, but their high-yield synthesis remains challenging. Here we demonstrate that potassium-induced splitting of BN nanotubes (BNNTs) is an effective high-yield method to obtain bulk quantities of high-quality BNNRs if a proper precursor material is chosen. The resulting BNNRs are crystalline; many of them have a high aspect ratio and straight parallel edges. We have observed numerous few-layer and monolayer BNNRs; the multilayered ribbons predominantly have an AA' stacking. We present a detailed microscopy study of BNNRs that provides important insights into the mechanism of the formation of BNNRs from BNNTs. We also demonstrate that the BNNTs prepared by different synthetic approaches could exhibit dramatically different reactivities in the potassium splitting reaction, which highlights the need for future comparison studies of BN nanomaterials prepared using different methods to better understand their preparation-dependent physical and chemical properties.