Abstract
Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has been generally interpreted as having an AA stacking sequence. Evidence is presented in this article indicating that typical commercial h-BN platelets (∼10-500 nm in thickness) exhibit stacks of parallel nanosheets (∼10 nm in thickness) predominantly in the AB sequence. The AB-stacked nanosheet occurs as a metastable phase of h-BN resulting from the preferred texture and lateral growth of armchair (110) planes. It appears as an independent nanosheet or unit for h-BN platelets. The analysis is supported by simulation of thin AB films (2-20 layers), which explains the unique X-ray diffraction pattern of h-BN. With this analysis and the role of pressure in commercial high-pressure high-temperature sintering (driving nucleation and parallelizing the in-plane crystalline growth of the nuclei), a growth mechanism is proposed for 2D h-BN (on a substrate) as `substrate-induced 2D growth', where the substrate plays the role of pressure.
Highlights
Boron nitride (BN) is comparable with graphite in its structure, as well as with respect to its physical properties (Wang et al, 2017)
In 1950, Pease (1950) proposed AA stacking based on the calculated X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) intensity, and this has generally been accepted as the structure of Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) (Wang et al, 2017; Pease, 1952; Topsakal et al, 2009; Constantinescu et al, 2013; Gilbert et al, 2018; Alem et al, 2009; Warner et al, 2010)
The intensity ratio of the {120} and {100} spots measured from the intensity profile (Fig. 2d) was 3.3, which is similar to that (2.8) of the simulation for the AB h-BN structure (Fig. 3a0)
Summary
Boron nitride (BN) is comparable with graphite in its (layered) structure, as well as with respect to its physical properties (Wang et al, 2017). In 1950, Pease (1950) proposed AA stacking based on the calculated X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) intensity, and this has generally been accepted as the structure of h-BN (Wang et al, 2017; Pease, 1952; Topsakal et al, 2009; Constantinescu et al, 2013; Gilbert et al, 2018; Alem et al, 2009; Warner et al, 2010). XRD patterns of all the structures were generated by the FULLPROF suite to provide a comparison with the experimental data (Rodrıguez-Carvajal, 2001)
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