Identifying the Molecular Edge Termination of Exfoliated Hexagonal Boron Nitride Nanosheets with Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy and Plane-Wave DFT Calculations

Hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h-BNNS), the isoelectronic analog to graphene, have received interest over the past decade due to their high thermal oxidative resistance, high bandgap, catalytic activity and low cost. The functional groups that terminate boron and nitrogen zigzag and/or armchair edges directly affect their chemical, physical and electronic properties. However, an understanding of the molecular edge termination present in h-BNNS is lacking. Here, high-resolution magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy and plane-wave density-functional theory (DFT) calculations are used to determine the molecular edge termination in exfoliated h-BNNS. 1H→11B cross-polarization MAS (CPMAS) SSNMR spectra of h-BNNS revealed multiple hydroxyl/oxygen coordinate boron edge sites that were not detectable in direct excitation experiments. A dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced 1H→15N CPMAS spectrum of h-BNNS displayed four distinct 15N resonances while a 2D 1H{14N} dipolar-HMQC sp...