Boron Nitride

Just as carbon makes up both the brittle core of a No. 2 pencil and the harder-than-steel diamond in a cutting tool, boron nitride gives rise to compounds that can be soft or hard. Yet, unlike carbon, far less is known about boron nitride’s forms and their responses to changing temperatures and pressures. The advent of BN has pushed several researchers in the field of nanoscience to explore the exciting properties of this material. We have focused on the growth of BN as well as its characterization, patterning, chemical functionalization and applications in areas such as energy storage. The use of BN as a building block in the design of novel two-dimensional atomic layer hybrids and new types of van der Waals solids are present interests.