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Creating the Smallest BN Nanotube from Bilayer h‐BN
Author(s) -
Xu Tao,
Zhou Yilong,
Tan Xiaodong,
Yin Kuibo,
He Longbing,
Banhart Florian,
Sun Litao
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201603897
Subject(s) - materials science , boron nitride , ribbon , bilayer , van der waals force , nanotube , nanotechnology , carbon nanotube , tube (container) , composite material , membrane , chemistry , organic chemistry , molecule , biology , genetics
Single‐wall nanotubes of boron nitride (BN) are among the most promising quasi‐1D materials with outstanding mechanical strength. However, synthesizing them in a controlled and reproducible way remains challenging. Here the authors show a technique of creating BN tubes by cutting bilayer BN sheets with an electron beam and interconnecting the two layers at an open edge. The in situ experiments in an electron microscope show that the spontaneous interlinking of the two layers leads to flattened tubular structures when a narrow ribbon is created. Below a certain width of the ribbon, van der Waals interaction between the layers is overbalanced by the stress in the layer so that the walls separate and a tube with circular diameter forms. The smallest stable BN tubes with a diameter of 0.45 nm, corresponding to a (3,3) tube, can be produced by this technique. The diameter can only be decreased in discrete steps, showing that all possible BN tubes with a given axis alignment relative to the BN lattice can be made. This is a novel top‐down approach that allows the authors to create and study a variety of ultrathin nanotubes from related 2D materials.