Flower-like superstructure of boron carbon nitride nanosheets with adjustable band gaps for photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide production

Abstract

The self-assembly of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor nanosheets into three-dimensional (3D) ordered superstructures represents an ingenious way to avoid aggregation, expose massive available active sites and benefit the mass transfer, which maximizes the advantages of the 2D nanostructures in photocatalysis. Herein, a flower-like superstructure of ternary semiconducting boron carbon nitride nanosheets (FS-BCNNSs) was synthesized through the morphology-preserved thermal transformation of a flower-like superstructure of boron-containing metal-organic framework nanosheets (FS-MOFNSs). Taking advantage of this functional superstructure, FS-BCNNSs was employed for the pioneering application in the field of photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production and exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance, yielding an impressive rate of 1415.9 μmol g−1 h−1 for the production of H2O2. The results of this work offer not just a promising catalyst for photocatalytic H2O2 production but also a facile strategy to fabricate unique superstructures constructed from 2D nanosheets for catalysis, energy conversion, and other related fields.