Large scale fabrication of porous boron nitride microrods with tunable pore size for superior copper (II) ion adsorption

Herein, large scale fabrication of porous boron nitride (BN) microrods has been achieved via a facile process, which involves the synthesis of melamine diborate precursors and subsequent thermal treatment process. The fabrication can be scaled up to ultra-large scale which is limited by the furnace. The characterization results show that the as-obtained products are porous BN microrods with diameters in the range of ten to tens of micrometers and length of a few millimeters, respectively. The specific surface area and porosity of these porous BN microrods are tunable by adjusting the synthesis processes of precursors. A highest specific surface area of 653.66 m(2)/g is obtained for the sample of BN-4, corresponding to the differential pore volume of 0.289 cm(3)/(g nm) and pore size of about 1.928 nm. Further measurement shows that the as-obtained porous BN microrods possess excellent copper ion adsorption property with a highest adsorption capacity of 365.4 mg/g. This adsorption capacity is superior to those of most copper ion adsorbents reported in recent literature. The high copper ion adsorption capacity combining with the unique properties of hexagonal BN makes them promising candidates for copper ions adsorption in practical wastewater treatment.