Atomically thin hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is often regarded as an elastic film that is impermeable to gases. The high stabilities in thermal and chemical properties allow h-BN to serve as a gas barrier under extreme conditions.In this work, we demonstrate the isolation of hydrogen in bubbles of h-BN via plasma treatment.Detailed characterizations reveal that the substrates do not show chemical change after treatment. The bubbles are found to withstand thermal treatment in air,even at 800 degree celsius. Scanning transmission electron microscopy investigation shows that the h-BN multilayer has a unique aligned porous stacking nature, which is essential for the character of being transparent to atomic hydrogen but impermeable to hydrogen molecules. We successfully demonstrated the extraction of hydrogen gases from gaseous compounds or mixtures containing hydrogen element. The successful production of hydrogen bubbles on h-BN flakes has potential for further application in nano/micro-electromechanical systems and hydrogen storage.
@article{arxiv.1907.02768,
title = {Isolating hydrogen in hexagonal boron nitride bubbles by a plasma treatment},
author = {Li He and Huishan Wang and Lingxiu Chen and Xiujun Wang and Hong Xie and Chengxin Jiang and Chen Li and Kenan Elibol and Jannik Meyer and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi and Zhangting Wu and Wenhui Wang and Zhenhua Ni and Xiangshui Miao and Chi Zhang and Daoli Zhang and Haomin Wang and Xiaoming Xie},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.02768},
year = {2019}
}