(718g) Nanoporous Boron Nitride: Synthesis, Stability and Gas Separation Characteristics

Boron nitride is a type of ceramic-based material and a structural analogue of graphene. In a single boron nitride layer, the boron and nitrogen atoms are held together in a hexagonal fashion. In this work, nanoporous boron nitride was synthesized in a dynamic templating strategy. The synthesized boron nitride was characterized with pore textural properties, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron microscopy. The boron nitride sample has BET surface area of over 1300 m²/g and total pore volume around 1 cm³/g. Thermogravimetric analysis followed by further characterization studies revealed that it is highly stable in nitrogen and in air upto a very high temperature. In order to examine its gas separation characteristics, different gases, including nitrogen (N₂), carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), ethane (C₂H₆), ethylene (C₂H₄), propane (C₃H₈) and propylene (C₃H₆) were adsorbed in boron nitride in ambient temperature and pressure upto 1 bar. Based on the Ideal adsorbed Solution Theory (IAST), selectivity of separation of different gas pairs, including CO₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄, CH₄/N₂, C₂H₆/CH₄, C₂H₆/C₂H₄ and C₃H₈/C₃H₆ were calculated. Furthermore, the breakthrough times for the simulated pressure swing adsorption were also calculated from the isotherms and selectivity values. The results suggest that nanoporous boron nitride can be employed for gas separation purposes.