Ternary Boron Carbon Nitride nanosheets with improved and controllable linear and nonlinear optical response for efficient photocatalytic performance

Abstract

This work reports the systematic variation of linear and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of ternary boron carbon nitride (BCN) nanosheets with varying carbon concentrations. These nanosheets are synthesized by the thermal substitutional method to modulate the band-gap of BCN nanosheets by varying the hBN and graphene domain ratios which is confirmed through UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy. The third-order optical nonlinearity of nanosheets was explored through the Z-scan technique. With increases in both carbon content and laser power, samples' NLO properties have shifted from saturable absorption to reverse saturable absorption. The enhanced nonlinearity with carbon concentration in BCN samples was responsible for higher photoinduced charge separation time. In UV–Vis driven photoreduction of organic pollutants, BCN nanosheets with a decreased bandgap and an increased charge separation time show higher catalytic efficiency. Therefore, based on the combined effect of many processes, the results revealed that the BCN nanosheets displayed greater potential for photoinduced reduction.