Surface interaction is extremely important to both fundamental research and practical application. Physisorption can induce shape and structural distortion (i.e. conformational changes) in macromolecular and biomolecular adsorbates, but such phenomenon has rarely been observed on adsorbents. Here, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that atomically thin boron nitride (BN) nanosheets as an adsorbent experience conformational changes upon surface adsorption of molecules, increasing adsorption energy and efficiency. The study not only provides new perspectives on the strong adsorption capability of BN nanosheets and many other two-dimensional nanomaterials but also opens up possibilities for many novel applications. For example, we demonstrate that BN nanosheets with the same surface area as bulk hBN particles are more effective in purification and sensing.
@article{arxiv.1612.02883,
title = {Molecule-Induced Conformational Change in Boron Nitride Nanosheets with Enhanced Surface Adsorption},
author = {Qiran Cai and Aijun Du and Guoping Gao and Srikanth Mateti and Bruce C. C. Cowie and Dong Qian and Shuang Zhang and Yuerui Lu and Lan Fu and Takashi Taniguchi and Shaoming Huang and Ying Chen and Rodney S. Ruoff and Lu Hua Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.02883},
year = {2016}
}