Issue 11, 2022

Evolution of ordered nanoporous phases during h-BN growth: controlling the route from gas-phase precursor to 2D material by in situ monitoring

Abstract

Large-area single-crystal monolayers of two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) can be grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD). However, the high temperatures and fast timescales at which the conversion from a gas-phase precursor to the 2D material appears, make it extremely challenging to simultaneously follow the atomic arrangements. We utilise helium atom scattering to discover and control the growth of novel 2D h-BN nanoporous phases during the CVD process. We find that prior to the formation of h-BN from the gas-phase precursor, a metastable (3 × 3) structure is formed, and that excess deposition on the resulting 2D h-BN leads to the emergence of a (3 × 4) structure. We illustrate that these nanoporous structures are produced by partial dehydrogenation and polymerisation of the borazine precursor upon adsorption. These steps are largely unexplored during the synthesis of 2D materials and we unveil the rich phases during CVD growth. Our results provide significant foundations for 2D materials engineering in CVD, by adjusting or carefully controlling the growth conditions and thus exploiting these intermediate structures for the synthesis of covalent self-assembled 2D networks.

Graphical abstract: Evolution of ordered nanoporous phases during h-BN growth: controlling the route from gas-phase precursor to 2D material by in situ monitoring

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
28 7月 2022
Accepted
20 9月 2022
First published
21 9月 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale Horiz., 2022,7, 1388-1396

Evolution of ordered nanoporous phases during h-BN growth: controlling the route from gas-phase precursor to 2D material by in situ monitoring

A. Ruckhofer, M. Sacchi, A. Payne, A. P. Jardine, W. E. Ernst, N. Avidor and A. Tamtögl, Nanoscale Horiz., 2022, 7, 1388 DOI: 10.1039/D2NH00353H

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