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Facile microwave approach to controllable boron nitride quantum dots

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Abstract

Boron nitride quantum dots (BNQDs), as promising metal-free quantum dots with unique photoelectric properties, have been controllably fabricated by a facile and high-efficiency microwave irradiation technique in this work. Though a number of attempts have been reported so far, it remains challenging to explore an effective approach to synthesize high-quality BNQDs with uniform size, well dispersion and high quantum yield (QY). Microwave irradiation strategy is identified as an advanced and beneficial method not only for high-efficiency energy inputting but also time-saving in comparison with the reported solvothermal process. Encouragingly, the particle size and QY of BNQDs can be well controlled by adjusting microwave reaction temperature as well as duration time. The average diameter of the as-prepared blue luminescent BNQDs ranges from 1.98 to 7.05 nm with QY up to 23.44%. Furthermore, attributed to the unique nanostructure, quantum confinement effect, and high dielectric loss, the as-prepared BNQDs exhibits an optimal reflection loss of −19.6 dB at 8.9 GHz with a broad effective absorption bandwidth of 5.02 GHz in the frequency range of 2–18 GHz, demonstrating as potential microwave absorption material in electromagnetic interference field.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the financial supports of National Natural Science Foundation of China (51673040, 21306023, 21676056 and 21376051), The Prospective Joint Research Project of Jiangsu Province (BY2016076-01), The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (3207046302), and The Fund Project for Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements of Jiangsu Province of China (BA2016105).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Optoelectronic Functional Materials and Engineering Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, People’s Republic of China

    Lidan Fan, Yuming Zhou, Man He, Yuan Tong, Xi Zhong, Jiasheng Fang & Xiaohai Bu

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  1. Lidan Fan
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  2. Yuming Zhou
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Correspondence to Yuming Zhou.

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Fan, L., Zhou, Y., He, M. et al. Facile microwave approach to controllable boron nitride quantum dots. J Mater Sci 52, 13522–13532 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1395-9

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